Fate Generation
by MalforyThistlefall
Summary: Many years after Emiya Shirou, Tohsaka Rin, and Arturia Pendragon used the Unlimited Blade Works to destroy the Grail, A ritual was conducted to purge Angra Mainyu's presence from existence, causing the Grail Wars to begin once more, with a purified Holy Grail. Now, some of the descendants of previous Grail War Masters, as well as newcomers, must fight over the Grail once more.
1. Chapter 1

_ Fate/Generation - Chapter 1_

Day One

It took quite a bit of willpower to get myself out of bed. Another long night spent training my body, both physically and mentally, left me more fatigued yesterday than I ever remember feeling in my life. I look around my bedroom and then out the window, the sun was shining brilliantly in the sky. I sit up and slide out of the bed, looking to the clock as I do. Five Forty-Five in the morning.

"Looks like I slept in a bit."

I make my way to the closet and dress in my school uniform. I'd rather not give my caretakers another reason to scold me, as the last time I was late for school had quite a few harsh reprimands. As I finish dressing, I make my way to the living room and prepare myself the morning tea. Once finished, I sat down at the table in the middle of the room and looked at the calendar I had left there last night. I pick up my marker and cross off another date.

"November 11th, it can't be much longer now."

I think back to my father, and the proud smirk he had when he told me of his plan for the 6th Holy Grail War.

"We've signed you up for a foreign exchange program to Fuyuki, Japan." he told me.

"You'll be there in time for the next Grail War, and with it you can achieve what me and your ancestors could not in our life times."

As his voice echoes in my head, I stand and return upstairs to look something over, as I still have a good deal of time before I have to leave for school. As I return to my room, I notice that my caretakers have still yet to wake up, they really do seem to be a very laid back couple. Once in my room, I go to the end table next to my bed and pull out the report I had seen many times before. The one that reminds me why I am here.

"Eleven years after the conclusion of the Fifth Holy Grail War, Magi Tohsaka Rin, Matou Sakura, Caren Ortensia, Lord El-Melloi II and Emiya Shirou attempted to purge to power of Angra Mainyu from the Holy Grail, which they had destroyed eleven years prior. The focus of this was to destroy the power of the Grail remaining in the world, even if the Grail itself was no longer existent. The purge was completed on November 12th of 2002, but the result was the return of the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail is predicted to return to Fuyuki exactly ten years after the purging was completed."

I smile slightly as I read over the article I was given by my father, which he was given by the Mages' Association. I looked at the calendar I brought up with me and looked at the date. I could almost feel the power coursing through my veins as I read it out loud to nobody in particular.

"November 11th, 2012."

After such long and intense training I was finally ready to fight for the Holy Grail in the stead of my Father, who's chance never came. I look to my clock, Six Twenty-two. I then smile and double check my uniform, making sure that I look presentable, and head back downstairs. I get my shoes on quickly and head out the door towards school, a good half an hour walk from here. As I move, I take out my cell phone and roam through my contacts, looking for somebody who would be able to answer. Before long, I come across somebody I know will answer. I press the call button and put it up to my ears, after a few rings I hear a very familiar voice on the end of the line.

"Sam? Hey! What are you calling me for?"

"Oh, nothing much, Tsubaki. I just wanted somebody to talk to while I walk to school, its a long way to go without anything to do."

I smile softly as I walk down the street towards Homurahara Gakuen. The person on the other end of the line is Mitsugamiyo Tsubaki, the first friend I made since I started attending school here is Fuyuki. She is in many of my classes and her friendly nature made her the best possible person to get close to.

"Right, sure thing! So what are you up to recently, you weren't in school yesterday."

"Yeah, that's right. I had something I needed to take care of, the school already knows, so don't worry about it. As for new things, nothing in particular comes to mind, just same as usual. What about you? Anything new about any clubs?"

"Not really, but the band concert is coming up in a few weeks. You should come!"

I laughed softly and continued down the street.

"I'll see if I have time, you know I'm always busy."

"Too often, you need to have more fun. Well, I need to get ready so I'll see you at school, bye!"

I snapped my phone shut after a curt reply, and as I slid my phone back into my pocket I could see my number one fear ahead of me. I must be walking faster than normal, because its not often I reach the Tohsaka Household this quickly. I eyed the building curiously and slowed my pace as I walked by, and my attention was drawn to the front door as it opened. I could see a young girl with long, strait black hair step out, her eyes met mine immediately. It would be too obvious I was avoiding her if I just pretended I didn't see her, so I'll have to acknowledge her.

"Hey there Tohsaka, heading to school?"

The girl, Tohsaka Haruki, was a acquaintance of mine. She is also the biggest threat to me in the Grail War possible, the famous Daughter of Tohsaka Rin and Emiya Shirou, the couple who both destroyed and restored the Holy Grail. She smiled a bit and started running over to me, school bag in hand.

"Senpai, hey. You're here before I got a chance to leave, that's a first isn't it?"

I smiled, nodded, and I looked her over for what feels like the millionth time. I've seen both Emiya Shirou and Tohsaka Rin, and it does not take any sort of expert to see she resembles her Mother a lot more than her Father. Her long black hair is accompanied by bright blue eyes and skin one might consider to be nearly flawless. She's a year under me, and often talks to me when we walk home or eat lunch together.

"I guess it is, odd. I was just thinking about how I don't see your house this quickly after leaving for school."

She laughed, and I smiled. For the past three months, I've been able to keep it a secret from every Magus in the school that I myself have great magic potential. If I can continue this for just a short while longer, I'll have a great advantage when the Holy Grail War finally comes around. After a brief stand-still chat with Haruki, we begin to walk to school together.

Once we arrive at school, I see a familiar face at the gate. She is smiling brightly and waves me over the moment she see's me.

"Sam! There you are!"

Not wanting to break my appearance at school, I quickly break into a run towards her. She gets in a defensive stance as I charge. One she is in range, I pull my finger back and...

FLICK!

"...Ouch..."

I rub my forehead slowly as I struggle not to fall over. From what I have gathered, my plan to flick Tsubaki's pale forehead had backfired. She turned around and looked at me with a stupid grin on her face, then stuck out her tongue and laughed.

"Got you!"

"I guess you did, how did you get so good so quick?"

"Just use to it by now I guess, you'll have to work harder to get me now!"

We both laugh, and I look at Haruki, who quickly moving towards us both, also laughing.

"Sam-Senpai, Mitsugamiyo-Senpai, you two are going to hurt yourselves one day."

"I'm sure you're right, but its more fun knowing that."

Haruki looked as if she was considering my point for a moment, then nodded. We then made small talk as we usually do, and the first bell rung. Classes would be starting soon, so Haruki broke off and ran towards her class. I looked to Tsubaki and nodded, and we both headed towards class.

Both of us were in class 3-B, and had Ryuudou Sensei as our Homeroom Teacher. Once in class, I sat down at my desk and thought about the upcoming days until class started. After that, it was just a simple school day. I had lunch with Tsubaki and Haruki, as per usual, and left class as soon as the final bell sounded at the end of the day. I made my way quickly towards the front gate when I was greeted by a familiar face.

"Oh hey, Senpai. Heading home so early? You should join a club or something, or else everybody is going to think you're anti-social."

"Eh-? Oh... Matou, its you. I mistook you for somebody with reason for stopping me."

I smiled as I turned around to see his grinning face. Daichi Matou, the newest heir of the Matou family, and the first in three generations to have any sort of magic potential. He is a first year and seems to be on good terms with Haruki. On top of that, he resembles his father to the point that I was convinced that there could not have been a mother and that he was created using only a single set of genes. From his hair to his posture, anybody could tell he was the son of Shinji Matou.

"That's not very nice, Senpai. I was just saying you should join a club, like the Archery Club."

"Sorry Matou, but you know I have a lot of things to do after school. Besides, I could never do something like Archery."

"I suppose you're right. Alright then, see you."

As quickly as he appeared, he turned on his heel and headed down the street towards the Matou house. After he was a good distance away, I made my way up the same street towards home.

After I returned home, I quickly went to the basement to continue my preparations for the Grail War. I saw my desk in the far corner and smiled, I had been getting blood from the butcher a few blocks down the street, and I had enough for the ritual now. All that was left was waiting until it was time to summon the Servant, and I would summon the servant that would suit me best and win me the Holy Grail.

I double checked my notes and looked through the book my father gave me when he sent me here, everything seemed perfect. All that was left was to wait until tomorrow and then summon my Servant, then I would win the Holy Grail War and be the first Magus to ever reach the Root of all knowledge. I made a few last minute notes and then retired to my bedroom where I quickly fell asleep.

Day Two

I woke up the next morning feeling a bit tired, and saw that I had woken up early. I quickly repeated my everyday morning routine and made my way out the door towards school. I reached my hand into my pocket and began to make use of a plan I made up the other day. I would call Tohsaka-san and ask her out today. If she gave me any sort of sharp declination without and explanation, then I could most likely assume she would be participating in the Grail War. I dialed her number quickly and she picked up after only two rings.

"Sam-Senpai, morning. What's up?"

"Hey Tohsaka, getting ready for school?"

"Yep, just getting my shoes on now actually, why? You like walking to school with me so much that you want me to wait for you?"

"Haha, you may be right. But actually, I was calling to see if you were free tonight. Maybe we could go do something."

"Oh... oh... well. Umm... it's not that I don't want to but... I'm really busy tonight!"

"Oh, that's okay. What are you busy with?"

"I have a lot of homework I need to do."

I slowed my pace as I walked past the Tohsaka Household. Looking in through the window, I could see Haruki holding the phone to her ear. I casually made a way out of the conversation as I quickened my pace. Tohsaka never had homework, she always did it in class. Knowing this, there is a very good chance that I'll have to fight her. That, or I really am so repulsive that she doesn't want to go out with me. Probably the former, though.

"Right, right. Well, I just figured I would ask. See you at school then."

"Okay, bye Senpai."

I put my phone away and continued walking towards the school. After I arrived, I saw that something was off as soon as I could see the gate. Tsubaki was not there to greet me as she has been doing since we became friends. I scratched my head softly.

"She's sick today."

I turned around to see Daichi standing there, looking at the spot that Tsubaki may as well have claimed as her own property.

"She's sick today, she called me this morning."

"Yeah, I heard you. Just curious as to why she called you and not me."

"Isn't is obvious, she trusts me more."

I laughed. Daichi has been like this since I first got here. I'm not sure exactly what it is about him, but he just does not seem to be able to get along with me. While I often pretend to be upset about it, I could honestly care less.

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it. Well, see you around Matou."

I quickly made my exit, I'd rather not hear any more from Daichi right now. I make my way quickly to class and let myself lose my thoughts in Ryuudou Sensei's monotone lectures about the history of Fuyuki City.

Come lunch time, I decided to head home early. If I went home before school was over, I would be able to summon my servant while my magic circuits were at there most powerful. I made my way over the fence behind the gym and made my way home as quickly as possible. Once home, I made my way to the basement. In exactly sixteen minutes, my magic circuits would be at full count.

I began preparations for the summoning, following the instructions from my father book to the letter. I painted the summoning circle with the blood I had ready, and soon everything was prepared. Now, I would summon my Servant, the first step to my winning of the Holy Grail War. I opened the book to the page I needed, made sure my I remembered what I needed to do perfectly, and then closed my eyes.

_"Let thy body rest under my dominion, and let my fate rest in thy blade."_

_"If thou submittest to the call of the Holy Grail and if thou wilt obey this mind, this reason, then thou shalt respond."_

_"Let the descending winds be as a wall."_

_"Let the gates in all directions be shut, rising above the crown, and let the three-forked roads to the Kingdom revolve."_

_"Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut."_

_"Five perfections for each repetition."_

_"And now, let the filled sigils be annihilated in my stead."_

_"Set."_

_"I make my oath here."_

_"I am that person who is to become the virtue of all Heavens."_

_"I am that person who is covered with the evil of all Hades."_

_"Thou seven heavens, clad in a trinity of words,"_

_"Come past thy restraining rings, and be thou the hands that protect the balance," _

_"Come forth to me!"_

The summoning circle glowed a bright red and I could feel the sheer power of the summoning flowing through the basement. I kept my eyes closed until everything died down, then looked around.

"...Wait? W-where's my Servant?"

I looked around in a full circle, trying to find the Servant I summoned, but I could see nothing.

"The Spell book. I must have done something wrong, I really have no time for something like this and I might n-"

My words were cut off by the white skull mask that appeared to float in front of me. It seemed to stare into my very soul, and I could only answer it with a stare of my own. It was then that I felt the horrible throbbing on my right hand, and when I looked to see what was wrong, I saw it.

"Command Seals..."

There they were. On the back of my hand rested the three red markings, the sign of a master. I did it, which can only mean...

I looked back to the floating mask in front of me, which mad not moved an inch from where I had last seen it. It moved up and down very slowly from the breathing of the Servant, and I quickly thought of what to ask.

"You are my Servant, correct?"

The mask moved up and down slowly, and a hoarse voice came from it.

"You are indeed my Master, I shall be by your side until we claim the Grail."

I could only smile. Not only did I summon a Servant, but this one was loyal as well as strait to the point. I quickly thought of more questions.

"Alright, what class of Servant are you? And what Heroic Spirit? I need to know everything about you."

"I am Hassan-I Sabbah, a Servant of the Assassin class."

"Right, well, we have a lot to discuss now, so let go to my room. It will be much better than this dirty little place."

The mask nodded and followed me as I led it upstairs and into my room. Now to talk strategy. I slowly thought of what I could use him for, and then made up my mind. First, I would need to test his abilities as a Servant of the Assassin class, and I had just the perfect idea.

"Alright, Assassin. I have your first order."

The figure, which I could now see was a tall, thin, bald man with pitch black skin and clothing, nodded to me.

"I want you to go to the Tohsaka Household and watch them tonight. There is a very good chance they'll be summoning their Servant, so I want you to tell me what class they get. And their Epic Spirits identity if possible."

"Understood, I shall head out now."

Assassin dematerialized before my eyes and I could not detect his presence, perfect.


	2. Chapter 2

_Fate/Generation - Chapter 2_

Day 1

I awoke to the sound of my alarm clock going off loudly. I quickly stopped it and slipped out of bed. As if I was programmed to do so, I moved to the dresser on the other side of the room and sorted out my school uniform. I then walked into the hallway and down the hall to the bathroom. A nice warm shower if the perfect way to wake myself up. Once I dried myself off I wrapped my body in a towel and returned to my room. I spent a good ten minutes getting dressed, I never really understood how some of the other girls at school could get these blouses on so quickly.

Once dressed, I made my way downstairs. I saw my father in the kitchen preparing breakfast. It was his turn today, and I was excused from cooking duty tomorrow, for obvious reasons. I smiled as I walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning dad."

"Oh, good morning Haruki. I hope you slept well."

"Of course, what's for breakfast today? Oh, and where is mom?"

"Misou soup today, and your mother is still sleeping. You know she's still not exactly use to working."

I smiled a bit and walked over to the dining room table, waiting for dad to finish breakfast. I took this time to study the book my mother prepared for me a few years ago. Tomorrow, late at night when my Magic Circuits were at full count, I would use the blood that's been prepared for me for the summoning circle...

"Alright, I can do this. I've been training five years for this now."

As I spoke, my father came in with breakfast. I'd grown use to seeing him in a apron, and from what he tells me he use to wear it even before I was born. He use to always cook meals for mom. Its kind of embarrassing, really. Both of them are great Magi, but together you would have a hard time picking them apart from your usual set of lovebirds. I smile at my dad and we start eating.

After breakfast, I get my shoes on and hurry out the front door. After I lock it behind me, I notice a very familiar kid walking down the street. He stops for a moment and hesitates. I make sure to make complete eye contact with him. Mom told me that was very important when speaking with people.

"Hey there Tohsaka, heading to school?"

He finally called out to me and I smiled. Sam always was an interesting person. He transferred here as part of some foreign exchange program and only knew basic Japanese. Despite that, he was fairly popular. He's in the Third-year classes with my friend Tsubaki, and she and him seem to have really hit it off. I heard a rumor that they were dating. He's only been around here for about three months now and he can already speak Japanese fluently. If nothing else, he is very impressive with his ability to pick things up on the spot.

"Senpai, hey. You're here before I got a chance to leave, that's a first isn't it?"

I'm not lying, this is the first time in my memory that Sam's gone by my house on his way to school before I left. He must have woken up early or maybe he just had a good night's sleep. I'm sure he's probably got it easier than me what with him not worrying about the Holy Grail.

"I guess it is, odd. I was just thinking about how I don't see your house this quickly after leaving for school."

I laughed with him softly and we chatted for a bit. I really don;t have much of an opinion of Sam, but if I had to make a statement you could say he;s the kind of guy you enjoy being around even if you're not quite sure why. He's sort of interesting that way. We both walk to school together, talking here and there, and once we arrived at the gates he broke into a full sprint towards Tsubaki.

Once occurred next could only be described as one of the most amusing things I've seen this year. Sam ran as fast as he could toward Tsubaki to flick her forehead as he has been doing since they became friends, and Tsubaki simply took one step the the left and flicked his forehead as he ran past her. The two laughed loudly, and I did my best to stop from falling over as I ran over to them, laughing all the while.

"Sam-Senpai, Tsubaki-senpai, you two are going to hurt yourselves one day."

"I'm sure you're right, but its more fun knowing that."

We talked a bit before classes, but after the first bell rang I quickly trotted off to my classroom. Class 2-A. My homeroom is taught by Fujimura Sensei, from what Dad tells me she use to watch over him, and has been teaching here since he was in school. She's funny sometimes, but she gets way too excited.

After a long day of classes I began my way home. As I left the gate, I saw Sam and Daichi Matou talking about something. Of course, that has nothing to do with me, so I just went home. When I got there, mom greeted me with a smile, and after some tea we both went down to the basement to prepare for the summoning tomorrow night.

Several hours of practicing the ritual and memorizing all the details made me a bit annoyed, but I'm well aware why I have to do this. Mom and Dad won the last Holy Grail War together, and now they want me to destroy the grail like they did last time.

"Remember, Haruki. Your posture is very important to the summoning of your Servant. My posture was too tight when I did my summoning and I ended up sending my Archer crashing through the ceiling. That and I was an hour off on my Magic Circuit full count..."

My mom never told me much about the 5th Holy Grail War. But from what I do know, Dad had a Saber-Class Servant and my Mom had the Archer-Class Servant. At some point Mom lost her Servant, and Dad somehow lost his without it dying. So my Mom got it back and made it her servant, then they destroyed the grail together.

"Don't forget you also need to control how much mana comes out at one time. If you overcharge the circle you could get an explosive summoning, like me."

"I know mom, I know."

A few more hours and was officially time for me to go to bed. Practicing magic is something you should never do if you're already tired, let alone do it for several hours. I sighed and crawled into bed, my thoughts wandering around what kind of Servant I'll get.

Day Two

I woke that morning with a slight headache, probably a result from all the training I did yesterday. Today was the day, Mom and Dad were going to watch over me as I summoned my Servant, and I was going to become a Master in the Holy Grail Wars, just like they were. I wonder if I'll get Saber or Archer like they did. I got out of bed, took my shower, dressed myself and made my way downstairs. I saw mom cooking breakfast in my place, she smiled at me as soon as I came into view.

"Good morning, Haruki. How are you feeling?"

"My head's a little sore after all that work we did yesterday, but I'm fine."

"Great, well go wait in the dining room and I'll be with you in a minute. Your father left for work early today so he could get out in time for the summoning."

How is my head being sore great? Oh well, I went to the dining room as she instructed and awaited until she arrived with breakfast. I wonder how far she got in the last Grail War before she lost her servant. If she tells me that than at least I can set a minimum goal for myself so I can beat my mother. No no, that's bad thinking. I need to win this war, no matter what.

"Hey mom."

"Hmm? What is it?"

"How far did you get in the last grail war before you lost your Archer?"

I asked her anyway, damn it this is a stupid idea. I need to wain so setting a minimum goal for myself is not going to help me accomplish anything if I just kee-

"Archer was the last Servant to die. Saved my life too."

"...huh?"

So, Archer was the sixth servant to die? That means in order to beat my mother I need to win this Grail war anyway. So, this whole conversation was completely pointless.

"Heh, right. Well, alright. I was just curious."

Me and mom ate our breakfast together. It was kind of lonely without Dad, but he'd be with me tonight. After breakfast, I got ready to head out the door. I have to get ready when I get home from school to summon my Servant and the sooner I can get the circle prepared the faster I can-

"Huh?"

I feel the phone in my pocket vibrating softly. I take it out and quickly check the caller, its Senpai. Without further hesitation, I open the phone.

"Sam-Senpai, morning. What's up?"

"Hey Tohsaka-san, getting ready for school?"

"Yep, just getting my shoes on now actually, why? You like walking to school with me so much that you want me to wait for you?"

"Haha, you may be right. But actually, I was calling to see if you were free tonight. Maybe we could go do something."

This is bad, I think he might be asking me out. I know a few of my friends are interested in him, but even besides that I can't accept. If I do then that might conflict with the summoning time and will ruin it. I have to think of a way out of this. Think...

"Oh... oh... well. Umm... it's not that I don't want to but... I'm really busy tonight!"

"Oh, that's okay. What are you busy with?"

"I have a lot of homework I need to do."

I think that should work. He does not know that much about me. Only what he's heard from Tsubaki-Senpai. So he should understand that I can't come, especially tonight. I hurriedly put my shoes on as I finish up the conversation.

"Right, right. Well, I just figured I would ask. See you at school then."

"Okay, bye Senpai."

I hang up and finally work my shoes on now that both my hands are free. I hurry out the door and walk to school. Once there, I didn't see Sam-Senpai at the gate. At first I thought he might be mad at me for turning him down, then I noticed Tsubaki-Senpai was not there either. Daichi, however, was standing there. I made my way over to him.

"Matou-kun, hey. Have you seen Sam-Senpai and Tsubaki-Senpai?"

"Oh, Tohsaka-Senpai. I just saw Sam-Senpai a little bit ago, he went to class. And Tsubaki-Senpai is sick today, she called me first thing in the morning."

"Oh, I see. Alright then, I need to get to class."

Daichi Matou. From what I understand, his father, Shinji Matou, and my mother have a bit of a conflicting history. Apparently they were rivals in the last Grail war and Shinji did some terrible things to my mom, but when his own Servant betrayed him, she saved his life. That's all I ever heard of it. The Tohsaka's and Matou's are on very good terms with each other now thanks to Sakura-Obasan. Hopefully he'll be staying out of this Grail War.

I hurried to my class and did my best not to get distracted by the thoughts of what I would be doing once home. However, it seems I may have started to daydream a bit as Fujimura-Sensei came over to my desk and patted my head to wake me up.

"Come on back to us, Tohsaka. What would your mother do if she caught you sleeping in class? I swear you have all your fathers bad habits..."

At mention of punishment from my mother, my body moved on its own to stand at attention. Sensei laughed a bit and skipped back to resume the lesson. I went to my normal table at the cafeteria after the bell rang, and saw that Sam-Senpai was not there. I asked a few of my friends and they told me he was excused from Afternoon classes today because his caretakers needed him urgently for something. That was the story going around at least, nobody wanted to think he would cut class.

I diligently attended my Afternoon classes, and after I was free to return home. I did so as quickly as I could, and once home I found Mom and Dad waiting for me. They took me down to the basement of the house and showed my the summoning circle they had prepared. Everything seemed perfect. Mom opened the small jewel box I was to be given and handed me two of the gems inside. I took them in my hand and we talked about everything I would need to know for the war.

I was reminded of the rules, that only the other Servants needed to die. I was reminded again and again by my father that there is no rule about killing the other Masters. Before I knew it several hours had passed, and my magic circuits were nearly at their full count. My mother made sure the clocks were right for some reason, she told me something about the clocks being off for her during the last Grail War.

Mom and Dad stood against the wall near the door, and I took my place in the center of the summoning circle. Focus... calm yourself... you need to control your mana...

_"Let thy body rest under my dominion, let my fate rest in thy blade."_

_"If thou submittest to the call of the Holy Grail and if thou wilt obey this mind, this reason, then thou shalt respond."_

_"Let the descending winds be as a wall."_

_"Let the gates in all directions be shut, rising above the crown, and let the three-forked roads to the Kingdom revolve."_

_"Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut."_

_"Five perfections for each repetition."_

_"And now, let the filled sigils be annihilated in my stead!"_

_"Set."_

_"I make my oath here."_

_"I am that person who is to become the virtue of all Heavens."_

_"I am that person who is covered with the evil of all Hades."_

_"Thou seven heavens, clad in a trinity of words,"_

_"Come past thy restraining rings, and be thou the hands that protect the balance,"_

_"Come forth to me!"_

The room is shaking? Gyah! I wasn't told anything about something like this! I hear a strange noise, I have to open my eyes!

"Master."

"...Wa- huh?"

Before me, I see a tall man with short brown hair and a small beard was kneeling before me. He wore a green coat that went down to his knee's to cover a darker green and black shirt. He wore black pants and had a black cloak draped over one shoulder. I looked down at him, and noticed the book in his arms.

"I see... you're my Servant then."

I looked over his body, and from what I could see, he had no weapons except for that book he had with him. I smiled and bit and then looked to my parents, who were smiling at the Servant kneeling before me.

"So, you must be a Servant of the Caster class then."

"Thou art correct, Master."

"Very well, I'll be sure to put your powers to good use, I assure you. Now lets get a few things out of the way, shall we? What's your identity as a Heroic Spirit?"

"In my time I was known as William Shakespeare, playwright of England. I do hope that be enough to sate the curiosity of my Masters question."

His manner of speaking bothers me. He has a slight accent, but that's simple enough to deal with. My problem is these words, he seems to be deliberately picking the most complex words her can. I swear if he's doing that just to screw with me i'll use a Command Spell...

"So in history you were not an actual Caster then? Right, that may set us back just a li-"

"Hold, my Master. I sense something, me thinks another Servant may be residing in this dwelling."

My mother stepped forward, the smile starting to fade from her face.

"I assure you that's impossible, we have a barrier field set around this house."

"But, think this I ask of you. The Servant of the Assassin Class can sneak through any for of detection thou had set for him. The only manner in which thy could detect said intruder is with the powers of the Caster Class Servant, me."

My father then stepped forward to confirm what Caster had said. I wish I had been told this ahead of time, but it appears to be too late at this point.

"Caster, do you know where Assassin is right now?"

"His presence wanes with each moment passing, Master. I suspect by the time we take action the intruder of thy house with hath already escaped with the information he had sought."

"I see. Very well then, Caster, I want you to set up a more powerful boundary field around the perimeter of the house, and keep a look out for any enemy Servants while you do so."

Caster gave me a curt nod and dematerialized before me. I looked to my parents, who were frowning a bit. My mother looked to me.

"Well, you summoned your Servant, but I would be careful, dear. Somebody out there knows exactly what kind of card you're holding."

I nodded to my mother and made my way upstairs. Once in my room, I sat on my bed and let out a tired yawn. I must be more tired than I thought. I looked out the window to see what I could see from here. You can just see the light from Kotomine Church over in Shinto if you look hard enough, and I can see Tsubaki, Daichi, and Sam's houses from here. I turned the lights off and shut the curtains, then laid down in my bed to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

_ Fate/Generation - Chapter 3_

Day Two

I worked diligently in the basement to prepare everything I would need for the next few weeks. I had sent Assassin to the Tohsaka household twelve hours ago to spy on her. The only proof I have that he has not yet been found are the command seals on my hand. The small rock I put on my desk is still waiting. I take it in my hand.

_"Irregularity, purge."_

I mutter the words used to activate my Magic Circuit, and soon, an exact duplicate of the rock on my hand appeared before me on the desk.

"Good, at least I'm not getting rusty."

Duplication magic, the magic I seem to excel at. Besides fire and protection its the only form of magic I've managed to master. While this may be a bit weak when compared to Haruki Tohsaka and her mastery of both projection and gem magic, I think I'll be good enough with what I have.

"Master."

"Gyah?"

I turn around quickly to see the white mask floating there, I only just detected his presence, he's too good at this.

"Ah, Assassin. Excellent, I was just waiting for your return. What do you have to report?"

"I stayed at the Tohsaka Household until they had summoned their Servant, as you had ordered me. From what I heard and saw, their Servant is Heroic Spirit William Shakespeare, of the Caster Class."

Shakespeare? Interesting, I've always been a fan of Shakespeare, and it would be interesting to see what kind of spells he would toss out. Then I realize something.

"Wait, Caster Class? You weren't detected were you?"

Assassin bowed his head to me and confirmed my suspicion.

"You weren't followed, were you?"

"Of course not, I left the moment I was detected."

That's good, if Tohsaka new I was a Master this early in the war then it would be over for me.

"Right, Assassin, dematerialize for now and watch over me. I'm going to get some sleep, I'll be attending my last day of school tomorrow."

I head up stairs as Assassin follows me as he dematerializes. I head to my room, and then stop as I pass my caretakers room.

"Assassin."

"Yes Master?"

"Hmm... Go ahead and kill the couple in that room. You can use the life energy for a little boost."

"As you command, Master."

I watch Assassin dematerialize as he approaches the door. Killing innocents is not really my style, but the people in that room have too many connections with the Mages' Associations and the Church. The moment they find out I'm taking part in the Holy Grail War they'll do everything in their power to stop me. Besides, I'm tired of taking the abuse of those two, I'll just consider this their karma and maybe it will help me sleep better.

Day Three

After I made myself breakfast, I sent Assassin to move my things from the basement to the living room, seeing as my caretakers are now out of the picture. I finish getting on my school uniform just as Assassin comes up from the basement with another load of books. I smile and nod to him, and he places the books on the table he brought up earlier.

"I'm heading to school now, Assassin. As soon as you finish here, go into spirit form and come to me. You won't be much longer, right?"

"I'll expect to be done by the time you arrive. Don't worry, I'll be by your side by the time your classes start."

"Excellent, then I'm heading off."

I head out the door and down the street. After a short while I see the Tohsaka household, and see Tohsaka hurrying out the door. Almost immediately, I feel a stronger magical presence among her than usual. Caster must be with her in Spirit form. I better do everything I can to suppress my magical presence.

"Hey, Tohsaka, nice seeing you again."

"Oh, Sam-Senpai! I must be later than I thought... Oh, by the way, where did you go yesterday? You left early."

Damn it! She noticed. Alright, I have to think of something. I can think of some way to get out of this, alright. What was the excuse I came up with this morning? I practiced just in case something like this happened and... That's right!

"Oh, I had a bit of work to do with my caretakers. They are going out of town for a while and leaving me in charge, I was helping them get ready. I didn't miss anything, did I?"

"Nothing much, least from what I know. Tsubaki called me though, she's feeling better, so that's good."

"Yeah, lets go then, don't want to keep her waiting."

I am walking down the street with another Master, and my life may very well depend on how well I can suppress my presence. Luckily, I always wear gloves due to how cold its been getting lately, so Tohsaka won't notice my command seals. Once we arrive at the gate, I notice Tsubaki waiting for us at the gate. I pick up my pace to greet her, and she smiles.

"Hey Sam, so glad to see I didn't get you sick!"

"I'm just happy to see that you're alright."

We talk like this for a while and then break head to class, leaving Tohsaka to herself. I'll continue to suppress my magic presence, but I won't have to be as careful now that I have a bit of space between me and Tohsaka.

At some point during English lessons, Assassin alerted me that he was watching me from the corner of the room. Soon after, Tsubaki was excused to the infirmary because she was not feeling well, and after Math I was not feeling too well either. I really hope she didn't give me whatever she had, that could be very bad for me in the long run. At lunch break, I went back to focusing on suppressing my presence, since I'll be sitting with Tohsaka again. When we got there, I noticed a few of the usual people there were missing, maybe Tsubaki got them sick.

"Sam-Senpai, hey there."

Tohsaka sat at the table and began to unwrap her bread. I've finally gotten use to eating packaged bread for lunch, its nothing like this at all back home. Tohsaka smiled at me, and I could not feel the great presence I did this morning. She must have Caster running an errand.

"Hey Tohsaka, what's up? And you know, I'm still not really that comfortable with the whole 'Senpai' thing. Like I said, you can just call me Sam."

"Alright then, Sam, I'm just fine actually. But my friend told me Tsubaki-Senpai was getting sick again?"

"Oh yeah, she left for the infirmary during math."

"Huh, well I hope she feels better."

We stayed on that topic during most of lunch and parted as we usually do. As expected, Hark was not going to be easy. She was able to completely avoid anything that would make her suspicious while not making herself suspicious in the process. She truly is the daughter of two great Magi.

I began my afternoon classes with physics, and the classes moved regularly.

"Master."

Assassin was right next to me in his spirit form. He must be bothering me for a reason, otherwise he would not have picked a time like this to get my attention.

"What is it?"

"I sense a build up of magical energy coming from the west end of the building."

"I see... We'll have to investigate then, one moment... Ahem, Sensei! I'm not feeling too well, may I go to the infirmary?"

After getting permission from teacher, I quickly made my way to the west side of the building. I made a stop by my locker and got the uniform I prepared just in case. If I did find another magus, or worse another Master, I don't want to be recognized. I go to the bathroom and suit up. A long black coat that covers me down to my ankles, a black bandanna over my nose and mouth, as well as one to cover my hair, followed by a black hat. I make sure my gloves are secure around my hands and continue rushing to the west end of the building.

Before long I could feel the magic presence that Assassin had pointed out to me, and it was stronger than I thought it would be. From what I could tell, it was coming from the infirmary. I rushed in, knowing no doubt anybody who saw me in this outfit would be in far too much trouble right now to care. But the sight I was greeted by was not a welcome one at all.

"T-Tsubaki?"

Even in my surprise, I managed to change my voice so it would not be recognized. Tsubaki was standing over a summoning circle, and I could see the school nurses tied up in the corner of the room. However my attention was drawn by the figure standing next to Tsubaki. A very tall man, with long black hair and bloodstained clothes. He had a twisted look in his eyes, and I could tell as soon as I saw him, he was a Servant. Also sensing it, Assassin quickly got into a position from which he could strike. Just then, the other Servant looked to Tsubaki and spoke.

"Master, I feel a great power coming from this one. He may be another Master."

"Oh really? Neat. Hey you, you're just in time! I'm just getting ready to summon some familars to take the school hostage! I think that if I do that, I can force the Tohsaka and Matou out of the war really quick. Great plan, huh?"

I was awe struck for quite some time. I've known for a while Tsubaki had some magical potential, but she was really powerful enough to summon a Servant? No matter what I'm going to have to stop her somehow, hopefully...

"Oh, right. You probably have a Servant here with you too, don't you? Well, how about I make this fair? We can go have a Servant fight outside, and if you win then I won't summon the familars."

"Master, you can't possibly be saying the-"

"I am, Lancer. Are you telling me you don't think you can win this fight?"

"Hmph, of course I can. I'm just questioning your way of thinking. What if I were a weaker Servant, would you still do the same thing?"

Lancer. Alright, thank you Tsubaki. Knowing that it's a Servant of the Lancer class is going to help me out a lot in this fight. Oddly enough though, he does not seem to have a spear on him right now. You would think he would seeing as his master is giving off such a high amount of mana to keep that summoning circle in place. Alright, I know what kind of Servant she has now. I snap my fingers loudly and Assassin materializes next to me.

"I await your orders, my Master."

Lancer looks to Tsubaki and gives her a questioning look.

"Master, I do not see why I do not just kill the maggot while he is not defending himself, he is an ease-"

"That's not fair, is it Lancer. Now I know you may not be use to fighting with rules, but so long as you're with me, you better follow them."

We made our way outside, and I could see the sun starting to get low in the sky. There were no PE classes this period, so the school ground were empty, and there were no windows on this side of the school because the Gym was right next to the infirmary. I turned to face Tsubaki and Lancer, as did Assassin. I readied myself, but then I thought of something.

"Tsubaki, how about we make this more interesting?"

"Oh, how so?"

"While our Servants battle each other, we also battle each other. And neither can come to the others rescue."

"Hmm... I like that idea! Okay, lets do it!"

That was a lot easier than I thought it would be. It's a good thing Tsubaki is still trusting and excitable, otherwise I'm not sure how well Assassin would do in a one on one. All I really need to do is have Assassin hold off Lancer long enough for me to drive Tsubaki into a corner.

"Master, are you sure that is a good idea?"

"Sure it is, after all, I was able to summon you, wasn't I?"

Lancer sighed and looked to Assassin, a large grin grew over his face, and I could see his sharp teeth.

"Very well then, Caster. Shall we fight t- -What?"

I looked to Assassin. He had jumped to the air and was already throwing knives like mad. Lancer dodged to the right, and the battle had begun.

_"Irregularity, purge."_

I quickly hurled a blast of flame towards Tsubaki, only intending to immobilize her. She countered it rather surprisingly, and fired large shards of Ice at me.

I moved quickly to dodge them, and then summoned another blast of flame at her. She blocked with her ice and I quickly realized the differences between us. Despite being a much more powerful magus than her, the ice she was making was a perfect counter for all my flames. I looked to Assassin, and he was locked in battle with Lancer. He would jump to a tree, or the fence, or the wall of the school, and throw a flurry of knives towards Lancer.

Surprisingly, Lancer was wielding a sword instead of a spear. It was no doubt not anything one would consider a Saber class weapon, but this was quite odd befitting the Lancer class. I looked to Tsubaki just as she fired another volley of Ice shards at me.

"Geh!"

A blast of flame melted them before they could reach me, and I began to realize how to hit her. I fired another blast of flame and saw it. An ice shield. That shield would last longer than my fire when then met, so...

_"Irregularity, overclock!"_

I shot out a long stream of fire towards her, and exactly as I had planned, she blocked with her ice shield. As the fire continued to race towards her, the ice melted and eventually my fire overcame her, launching her back. She used the ice to stop her self from catching fire, but she was on the ground. I approached her with another blast of fire in my hand and now I could-

_"Trace, on!"_

"Huh? Bwagh!"

I was thrown a good few meters to the side by an amazing blast of wind, and I struggled to get back on my feet. I looked to see Assassin and Lancer had stopped fighting, and were staring down a new Servant. He wore a long green coat, and had a black cloak over one shoulder. Now to see who hit me... Wait a minute...

"Tohsaka..."

How did I forget about Haruki? Of course she would come to a battle between Servants at her own school if she noticed it, and with a Caster class Servant, she would have no trouble at all sensing the amount of magic we've given off already. Damn I'm such an idiot! I stand up and face my new opponent, keeping careful to change my voice.

"Tohsaka, what a pleasant surprise."

"Who are you? How do you know who I am?"

"Oh I'm just a student here same as you, but the better question would be how do I know about your Servant. William Shakespeare I think his name was, is that correct Assassin?"

I look to Assassin, to nods to me.

"Of course, Master."

Tohsaka's face goes pale as she looks to Caster. Caster has his spell book open in one hand and is scratching the back of his head with the other.

"Hmm, I doth think we may be outmatched by our current opponent in this setting, Master. Thou must know thy opponent has knowledge of my Servant identity which could lead to my down fall."

"Of course I know that, but we can't just leave him either! You there, what are you trying to do?"

Tohsaka glares daggers at me, and I see Assassin work his way back to me. Meanwhile, Lancer goes to assist Tsubaki up off the ground. I smile under the bandanna covering my face and look to Tsubaki.

"That girl there had planned on summoning Familiars to force you and the Matou to resign from the War. I guess that means Daichi is also a Master. I'm simply watching out for the school"."

"Tsubaki... W-why would you do something like that?"

Tsubaki looked at Tohsaka sadly and then grabbed onto Lancer. Lancer jumped powerfully into the air while Tsubaki was latched tightly to him, Tohsaka then looked to me. I could feel that despite having common goals she still felt hostility towards me as a opposing Master. She walked over to me, not once taking her eyes off me, and Caster followed her close behind.

"So you're the one who sent Assassin to spy on my house then."

"That's correct, it was a test of his ski- -Gyah!"

I was blasted backwards by a gust of powerful wind coming from the gem she was holding in her hands. I was sent back a good twenty meters, but was luckily caught by Assassin this time, who set me on my feet. Tohsaka, despite having just attacked me, looked at me like she had just seen a ghost.

"What are you so shocked about?"

"S-Sam... Senpai?"

What? Wait a minute. I look at the floor and notice the wind she hit me with blasted off the hat and bandanna's I had been using to conceal myself. Damn it! She's got me in a bit of a corner now, my only choice now is to try and resolve this peacefully. I slowly raise my arms.

"Hold on now, Haruki. We both had common goals here, right? How about this, you and I go our separate ways now that Tsubaki's been taken care of, and next time we meet it will be as enemies. Fair?"

Tohsaka continued to look at me in amazement for a few moments, but then nodded and rolled up her sleeve, putting away the glowing magic crest on her arm.

"Alright, but you best stay away from the school or I won't be holding back."

"Fair enough, so long as you guard it. Assassin, let's go."

I quickly rushed towards the school gate and hopped the fence, Assassin leading the way as we returned home. I would have to change all of my plans at this point, and I was going to have to be very careful if I don't want to get myself killed.


	4. Chapter 4

Fate/Generation - Chapter 4

Day Three

After I was finished with my breakfast, I went to the hallway and put my shoes on. I could see somebody walking by out the window as I did, and then I hurriedly rushed out the door. I slept in a little bit today after I stayed up late last night searching for Assassin's Master, however fruitlessly. With Caster Dematerialized by my side, I hurriedly opened the door and went outside. I then saw who the figure walking passed the house was.

"Hey, Tohsaka, nice seeing you again."

Sam-Senpai again. I really did wake up late today. Come to think of it, didn't he leave school early yesterday?

"Oh, Sam-Senpai! I must be later than I thought... oh, by the way, where did you go yesterday? You left early."

"Oh, I had a bit of work to do with my caretakers. They are going out of town for a while and leaving me in charge, I was helping them get ready. I didn't miss anything, did I?"

"Nothing much, least from what I know. Tsubaki called me though, she's feeling better, so that's good."

"Yeah, let's go then, don't want to keep her waiting."

I walked along side Sam as we walked to school for the second time this year. He looked just as tired as I was. Just as I was thinking about him being awake all day helping his caretakers, I heard Caster's voice echo through my head.

"Master, doth thou also feel the power from thy guest?"

"What do you mean, Caster."

"I am feeling the presence, however faint, of mana from the man thou art walking with."

Wait, what? Is Caster saying that Senpai is a Magus? That's just not possible, I've been going to school with him for three months and I've never felt anything from him. And Caster can tell from the first time he see's him? I'll have to keep this in mind and trust Caster this time around. I think this over until we arrive at the gate, where Sam-Senpai goes about his usual ritual of leaving me in the dust as he goes to greet Tsubaki-Senpai.

"Hey Sam, so glad to see I didn't get you sick!"

"I'm just happy to see that you're alright."

I talked with Tsubaki and Sam a while. Caster alerted me almost instantly that Tsubaki also had a faint magic presence, but I knew that already. She was a second generation Magus, hardly a threat to me. The chances of her having enough power to participate in the Grail Wars were slim to none. And I honestly could not see her doing anything to hurt anybody.

We split up at our usual time and I went to my class. At some point during one of Fujimura-Sensei's lessons, Caster told me he could sense the presence of two Servants in the school building. Interesting, I figured Daichi would summon a Servant, but having two masters in the school? I'll have to find out who has been fooling me and quickly. After Biology, the bell rang for lunch and I made my way to the usual table in the cafeteria. I sent Caster out to search for which class either Servant might be in while I enjoyed my Lunch period.

"Sam-Senpai, hey there."

Sam sat at the table and began to unwrap his bread. This site never seems to grow unfunny, as Sam has struggled with the wrapping since day one. I do all I can to suppress my laugher.

"Hey Tohsaka, what's up? And you know, I'm still not really that comfortable with the whole 'Senpai' thing. Like I said, you can just call me Sam. I never understood honorifics."

"Alright then, Sam, I'm just fine actually. But my friend told me Tsubaki-Senpai was getting sick again?"

"Oh yeah, she left for the infirmary during math."

"Huh, well I hope she feels better."

We ate out lunch simply. At some point, Sam asked me what I was busy with the night I turned him down, apparently he knew I never do my homework at home. I lied to him without batting an eye and continued my lunch until the period ended. I returned to my class and we began mathematics. About half-way through, Caster's voice again echoed in my mind.

"Master, I was able to deduce that one of thy targets doth reside in the class of Matou Daichi. However, I was not able to exactly locate which class the other servant's master doth dwell. Also, I am feeling a large build up of magic on the west side of this building."

"You're sure? Alright, lets go see what's going on."

I finished the math assignment I was working on, which was nearly done by the time Caster got to me, and went to Sensei.

"Excuse me, Sensei, I'm not feeling very well, may I go to the infirmary?"

For some reason Sensei was giving me a hard time with leaving the class. I'm sure the amount of people skipping lately, combined with the fact we were in the middle of an assignment had something to do with it. I finally managed to get out of class, and I looked at the clock in the hallway.

"Are you serious? He honestly stalled me for ten minutes?"

Alright, calm down. I need to hurry up and investigate what's going on at the west side of the school. I start to run down the hallway, and I can already feel the sheer amount of magic as we get closer.

"Master, doth thou feel it as well? If I am not mistaken, me thinks a battle between Servants may be a sight for us to behold soon."

We continue running down the hall, and we finally get outside. I run to the wall behind the gym and see something I never thought I would. Two Servants, a slightly built man with pitch black skin and a white skull mask, and a tall man with blood soaked chain mail are battling. Meanwhile, I man in a very threatening looking black outfit is approaching... Tsubaki? She's a Master? He's going to hurt her, I have to stop him!

_"Trace, on!"_

The man in the all black garment looks in my direction for only a moment as I throw one of the precious stones towards him then a torrent of wind hurls him away from Tsubaki. The two Servants stop fighting and look at me, as they do so, I can hear Caster materializing right behind me. The man in black stands back up, and sadly is wearing enough so that I can only see his eyes. I have no idea who that is, but I need to find out.

"Tohsaka, what a pleasant surprise."

He knows me? This is bad. I am at a serious disadvantage if the man I know nothing about knows about me. I need to figure out everything I can about this Master or he is going to become a very serious problem.

"Who are you? How do you know who I am?"

"Oh I'm just a student here same as you, but the better question would be how do I know about your Servant. William Shakespeare I think his name was, is that correct Assassin?"

Assassin's Master. I should have been able to tell from the look of the Servant that his Master was one of these two. So not only does he know me, but he also knows everything about my servant, and all I know about him as that his Servant is Assassin class. I need to find out more and quickly.

"Hmm, I doth think we may be outmatched by our current opponent in this setting, Master. Thou must know thy opponent has knowledge of my Heroic identity which could lead to my fall."

"Of course I know that, but we can't just leave him either! You there, what are you trying to do?"

I glare at the figure and do all I can to intimidate him, no matter what I won't let him hurt anybody at my school. Mom told me at one point in the last Grail War Shinji Matou tried to drain the life of the whole school with a barrier field, I can't let him do that same thing!

"That girl there had planned on summoning Familiars to force you and the Matou to resign from the War. I guess that means Daichi is also a Master. I'm simply watching out for the school".

I looked over to Tsubaki, who was getting off the ground. She's a master? I just can't believe it. I knew she was a Magus but I never heard of a Magus as weak as two generations that has summoned a Servant before. I guess her lack of power explains her loss to the man in black. But more importantly, Tsubaki was trying to take the school hostage with familars?

"Tsubaki... W-why would you do something like that?"

Tsubaki looked at me and her face looked pathetic, I could tell she was ready to cry. I watched as she clung tightly to her Servant, and the Servant then kicked off the ground and leaped into the near by forest. I wanted to chase after her, but I quickly remembered that there was still another Master I had to deal with. Assassin's Master.

"So you're the one who sent Assassin to spy on my house then."

"That's correct, it was a test of his ski-"

I lost my temper. I projected a copy of the crystal I had thrown at him earlier and threw it strait for him. He was blasted backwards by the wind and I could see the bandana's and hat the had covered himself with go flying off... No, that can't be right. There's no way I've been so oblivious.

"What are you so shocked about?"

"S-Sam... Senpai?"

I'm completely shocked, I know Caster told me he might be a Magus, but from the fact I never felt anything from him I thought he may have simply been a first generation. Or perhaps had just been around something with mana recently. I looked and saw Sam slowly raise his arms to be at level with his head.

"Hold on now, Haruki. We both had common goals here, right? How about this, you and I go our separate ways now that Tsubaki's been taken care of, and next time we meet it will be as enemies. Fair?"

I still found myself staring in wonder. Samuel Parker, the foreign exchange student and a friend of mine for three months, was a Magus. No, not just a Magus, but a Master. Calm down, if what he is saying is true, then he doesn't want to fight me. I have to trust him, as a friend.

"Alright, but you best stay away from the school or I won't be holding back."

"Fair enough, so long as you guard it. Assassin, let's go."

I watched as he turned and ran towards the gate of the school, Assassin following close behind him. I looked to Caster, who just stood there scribbling in his book writing with a quill. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I have this feeling that he and I are designed to not get along well.

"That was interesting. I was fully expecting thou to take the more aggressive route and foray him on the spot, despite thy foe having the advantage."

"Hey, he said he was acting to defend the school. There is no point in attacking an ally."

"An ally he may be now, but he may come back and bite his thumb at thee."

I sighed softly, as much as I didn't want to admit it, Caster was right. Even if I don't fight Sam here, eventually we will have to fight for the Holy Grail. Like it or not, we are enemies. I went to the infirmary and found the summoning circle Sam mentioned. I destroyed it and untied the nurses in the corner of the room. Caster made them forget everything that happened, and I rushed home.

Once home, I told mother what happened and hurried to the basement to begin preparing for what to do next. I trusted Sam enough not to want to attack me first thing, he's the kind of person who would want to keep as few people from dying as possible during the war, so we had common goals. What I needed to figure out is what Servant Tsubaki and Daichi had, as well as the identities of the other masters.

That night, I went patrolling the city with Caster. We stopped at a few places that had traces of magic energy, but we did not find much of any interest. We walked down the street in Shinto when Caster stopped me.

"Master, hold moment if thou would. I am feeling the presence of a Servant within the area."

I skidded to a halt and began to search the area for where the Servant might be. Caster called me over to a flower shop on an intersection. The store was closed, but you could see light on in the back of the store. Somebody was in there, and Caster was certain that it was a Master.

"Caster, how exactly do we find out who the Servant or Master are?"

"That would be up to thou's commands, Master. I shall act on thy orders, as I lack any idea's for how to handle this situation."

I stood there thinking, I saw a shadow in the lit room of the store move from time to time, but it helped me little. Perhaps I could simply break in and attack, but then again if Saber or Berserker was in there I would be done for. I could also simply-

My train of thought was interrupted by a large magic shield covering my front as an arrow snapped against it.

"Be on thy guard, Master! We are besieged!"

Caster jumped through the window which had just a moment ago been broken by an arrow. He raised a shield in front of himself and blocked another two arrows. I looked and saw where the arrows were coming from. I saw a man wearing a red tunic with a bow in hand, drawing arrows from his quiver and firing them just as fast as he had drawn them. He fired relentlessly at Caster, who blocked them with the magic shield. We are being attacked by Archer.

"Caster, retreat! We have to get out of here!"

Caster raised another shield in front of him and then turned to me. He began to run and then closed the broken window with another shield. He grabbed me and launched us in the air, and I could see arrows flying fast us. We're being followed.

Caster landed near the Shinto bridge and turned to his opponent. Another arrow came right at him, but this time he swung his hand forward and the arrow shattered in a flash of light. He then opened his book and glared as the Archer approached.

"I do hope thou know's the stakes of challenging me, Archer. I assure you thy death shalt not be a quick one."

Archer responded only by firing another arrow, which Caster shattered as he did before. He then fired two small balls of light towards Archer, who jumped away from them, the lights hit the ground and made small explosions, which scorched the ground below them. Caster then moved through his book as Archer drew another arrow.

Caster threw off the black mantle on his shoulder and his book floated in front of him. He then drew his quill, just as Archer fired several arrows right towards him. I prepared myself to put up a shield of my own in front of Caster, but stopped when I saw light coming from the quill in his hand. He laughed and looked at the arrows racing towards him.

_"Playwright!"_

Casters quill met the book in front of him and it felt like time had stopped. Archer was frozen in mid-jump, and the arrows were perfectly still a few feet from Caster. Even I was unable to move as I saw Caster quill scratch across the surface of his tome.

"And the arrows that had hence been fired towards Caster then turned and launched after their Master and aimed strait for his heart."

He removed the quill from the book and time moved one more. The arrows, that were flying towards Caster just a moment ago, were now sailing through the air right at Archer. Archer landed quickly and fired and arrow at the one's that were approaching him, breaking all of them.

"How did you..."

Archers voice was very youthful, just like his appearance. Caster smirked and he flipped to another page in his book, but Archer fled before he had a chance to use another spell. I looked to Caster in wonder, and he smiled at me.

"Caster... was that... was that your Noble Phantasm?"

"This script is my Noble Phantasm, Master. Thou will be able to see what other tricks I hold in this little performance you call a war."

He smiled at me and retrieved his cloak. He flung it over his shoulder once more and motioned to me. We walked home together, and we made a plan. Tomorrow, we would visit Sam and see if he was interested in some sort of temporary Alliance until we defeated some of the more powerful Servants. Caster didn't agree at first, but by the time we arrived back home he had given in.

I went to bed shortly after I got home. After the incident in Shinto I was exhausted. I ordered Caster to add more power to his barrier field around the house while I slept, and to keep a close eye on the house to make sure we weren't followed after the scuffle by the bridge.


	5. Chapter 5

Fate/Generation - Chapter 5

Day Four

The morning came far too quickly for my liking, but I got out from the bed none the less. I did not bother to dress in my uniform today as I would no longer be attending school until the end of the Grail War. I went downstairs to my new workshop in the old living room and began working on sorting out what was needed. I called for Assassin and told him to watch from the roof an alert me if anybody was coming by.

I continued my studies into even the most minor of details about the Holy Grail War, my father had given me plenty of books to do so. I was most interested in a large book of notes about Command Seals my father had sent me off with. What I found in that book may be of great use to me later. Another few books and I should be ready to head out with Assassin to find the locations of other Masters.

"Master."

Assassin materialized behind me, but I've grown use to him doing that at this point. Even if I can't sense his presence until he is within speaking range, I still recognize his voice.

"The Master of Caster is approaching, Master. I did not sense Caster to be with her, but I suspect he is waiting near by."

"I see, greet her and see her in. This is an interesting turn of events."

Assassin bowed to me and dematerialized. I set down the books I had been drawn into and took a seat in a chair facing the front door. I waited a short while until Tohsaka was walked into the living room by Assassin. I give the best friendly smile I can and motion her to a chair.

"Tohsaka Haruki, I'm surprised. You came here without your Servant, knowing full well what our standing is at this point. What exactly are you doing?"

"Well, Caster not being at my side was to show I meant no harm, but make no mistake, he is close by."

Tohsaka sat in the chair opposite mine and crossed her legs. I continued to smile at her as I took a tome from the table next to me and set it in my lap.

"Assassin, continue to watch for any intruders."

"Yes, Master."

Assassin dematerialized, and I was alone with Tohsaka. I could easily call Assassin to my side if she tried anything, but I was all too curious as to what she had come here for to worry about trivial things like that right now.

"Now, let's talk."

"Right, well, after the incident at school I think I understand you a little better."

I certainly hope that's not true. If you understand me, then I'll be at a serious disadvantage from now on. I'm sure she means something else though.

"I see, and what exactly does that mean?"

"Well, you and I have similar goals, to a certain extent at least. You were trying to protect the innocents at the school, just like me. And since both our Servants are not exactly the strongest, I was hoping we could work out some sort of Alliance for the time being until we eliminate the more powerful Servants."

"A ceasefire? Interesting proposal. To be honest I was going to make you my first target, but this is quite the unexpected proposal."

If I do make a ceasefire with Tohsaka, I don't have to worry about the one person who actually knows that I'm a Master. It also means there is a chance Assassin will be backed by Caster in the next battle, which would be of great use to me in the long run. This needs to be thought over...

I ran the thought around my mind a few times, all the while Haruki looked at me patiently. After thinking through all the little details, I think I have much more to gain than to lose from this.

"Very well, I'll accept the terms you've set out, for the benefit of us both."

"Excellent, oh, and I found the base of Archer's Master last night. It's a flower shop over in Shinto. Seeing as we're working together now, we should attack it tonight."

"Tonight? I think that may be a bit unrealistic. I'd rather let Assassin regain power after my battle with Lancer."

"Lancer? Is that Tsubaki's servant?"

"Yes, I think right now it would be far more important to deal with Tsubaki anyway. Don't you agree?"

I played on Tohsaka's sense of duty, a trait I hear she shares with her father. If I could get Tohsaka to follow my orders, and not the other way around, then I would learn more about her than she will of me during out brief partnership.

"I guess you're right. She might try that thing at school again if we don't watch her."

Perfect, I have Tohsaka going along with my plan for the time being. This Alliance may turn out to be more helpful for me than for her in the long run.

I talked with Tohsaka a while longer, and she was eventually escorted off the property by Assassin. She agreed to meet up at the school later and try and deal with Tsubaki and Lancer. I have enough faith in Tohsaka for her not to try and bring me into a trap, I just know she would not do something that underhanded. While I wait for the time in question, I continue my studies of the Command Seals.

From what I was able to figure out from this book, Command Seals are more powerful depending on how powerful the Magus is, as well as how specific the order is. Is this sense, if you gave your Servant a order that included many details of how to carry it out, the result would be much more powerful. In addition, my father left some notes with a little trick to further increase the power of Command Seals. I'll be sure to hold onto the information for later, it could prove very useful.

Before long the time in which me and Tohsaka agreed to meet was not far away. I called for Assassin, and we made out way to the school. The lights were out at the Tohsaka house as we passed, and it didn't take long to reach the school from there. After I arrived, I quickly found Tohsaka and Caster waiting for us patiently. I had dressed in my all black attire again today. Once more covering most of my face in the event we encountered another master besides Tsubaki.

"Tohsaka, nice to see you were not trying to trick me. Now, do you think Tsubaki is holding up at her house, or elsewhere?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but Caster will be able to find out. I think we should go to her house and see if Caster can sense Lancer. If not, I have a few ideas as to where she might be."

So I would be following Tohsaka's lead. She is following my plan, so this poses little problem. Besides, if Tsubaki was not at her house I would at least be able to see where these other places she is talking about are hidden.

"Very well, lead the way then."

I followed Tohsaka closely as we made out way to the Tsubaki house, it was near the park on the other side of town. I found myself making pointless small talk with Tohsaka as we made our way there. Asking her what she planned on doing after the Grail War and why she was fighting in it in the first place. Most of the questions were answered with the same question being asked to me, and I usually did not answer.

Before long we found ourselves at the Tsubaki house. I looked to Tohsaka, who nodded to me.

"Caster, do you feel anything?"

There was silence for a moment, and then Tohsaka nodded her head and looked to me.

"Caster does not feel Lancer's presence here, so they must be elsewhere. I have an idea, follow me."

I found myself following Tohsaka without question, and we soon were crossing the bridge to Shinto. I looked around and noticed that it must be very late, I only saw one or two cars driving across the bridge, a rather unusual sight in this city. For some reason this bridge has always been busy with people going too and from work and meetings, and I found it offsetting that-

"Sam!"

My thoughts were dragged back as I heard Tohsaka words. I quickly looked ahead of me and stopped dead in my tracks. Lancer was standing on the bridge walkway, only a couple meters away from us. Tsubaki was in front of him, smiling at us.

"I found you guys, great! Now I can kill your Servants and we can be friends again."

Tohsaka began to yell and lecture Tsubaki as Caster materialized to the side of her. Looking between the two, they were very deep in their argument. This is a chance I simply cannot pass up. I closed my eyes and whispered as quietly as I could.

"Assassin, kill her."

I opened my eyes just in time as I hear Tsubaki let out a loud scream. Assassin materialized a short distance from her, crawling on the side of the bridge,and began to rain down knives at her. Lancer, of course, grabbed his Master and pulled her from danger. Assassin then held his position on the side of the bridge, awaiting my orders. I saw Tohsaka also take action, and she sent Caster forward to attack Lancer. I changed my target to Lancer as well, my sneak attack had failed.

Lancer ran towards Caster, who hailed peculiar balls of light towards him. Meanwhile, Assassin hailed down more and move of his knives at him. Lancer was a suprisingly nimble Servant, as he was able to dodge most of the lights and knives, and block what knives he could not dodge. He closed in on Caster easily and rammed into him with his shoulder.

Caster was sent back a few feet and fell flat on his back, but got up quickly and began to fire black orbs this time, which moved much faster. A few hit Lancer, and he was sent backwards by an explosion upon contact with the orbs. Lancer made his way to his feet with no difficulty, and I realized that even with two Servant fighting one, we were outmatched. I then was reminded of the book I read just earlier today.

"Tohsaka! I have an idea!"

I turned my attention back to Lancer, who was glaring at us. I looked to Assassin, but my attention was drawn back to Lancer as when he spoke for the first time since the battle had started.

"This is quite the fight, but I find this battlefield lacking. I'll have to change that."

I was then greeted by a sudden burst of wind that threatened to knock me over. I covered my face with my arms and I could see Caster getting in front of Tohsaka out of the corner of my eye. Next there was a bright flash of light.

Cold, I fell over, and what ever I am laying on is cold. I need to open my eyes and...

"W-what?"

I opened my eyes, and found myself lying on a cobblestone road. I stood up, and was attacked by a horrible stench, the source of which was obvious. Along both sides of the cobblestone road was a long line of corpses, impaled from their waist, going down the road as far as the eye could see. I saw Tohsaka looking at the same sight in horror, Caster in front of her next to Assassin.

"Is this... A Reality Marble?"

I looked to Tohsaka, who nodded softly to me, confirming my fears. I looked to Lancer, who was standing proudly on the road, Tsubaki behind him. From what I could see of Tsubaki, she was fairly scared of what her Servant had done was well. Lancer then broke the silence with a long, crazed laugh.

"Behold, my beautiful works of art! This is the legacy of I, Vlad Tepes, the Lord Impaler! My greatest Noble Phantasm, _The Path of Nightmares!_"

Vlad Tepes, the famous murderer who inspired Dracula. His position in the Lancer class finally made sense, and I-

"Master!"

I was quickly grabbed by Assassin and moved, just a large wooden stake shot from the ground that had previously been under my feet. The same happened to Tohsaka, which she dodged. We continued to move just as the horrific spikes shot from the ground one by one until I counted twenty in all. After that, Lancer looked to us and smiled.

"Now that we have such a glorious battlefield, lets finish this battle!"

Assassin charged forward as Caster moved through his book. He drew his knives and they met Lancer's blade, making a long clash as they both prepared to strike again. Attack after attack Assassin was blocked by Lancers blade. I looked back at Caster, and he had taken out a quill, and his book now floated in front of him.

_"Playwright!"_

Time froze, I could not move a muscle, and I saw Lancer and Assassin frozen just as their blades were ready to collide one more. Caster wrote quickly into his book, as he was the only being among us who could move. He smirked to himself as he spoke what he must have been writing aloud to us.

"And the blade of the Assassin, of which his foe, Lancer hath stayed from here since, broke through the defenses of thy enemy."

He removed the quill from the book, and I saw Assassins blade push Lancers out of the way, and slash him along the arm. Lancer leaped back and glared at Caster, who was smiling confidently at Tohsaka. Suddenly, another spike shot up from the ground under Caster's feet, and he could not dodge fast enough. The spike did not impale him, but slashed his front and sent him a good distance backwards. Without Casters support I was not sure how long Assassin would-

Wait a minute! That's right, my Command Seals. In the surprise of the Reality Marble, I completely forgot my own plan. I readied a spell and with one fluid movement, I stuck the ground with my palm. The ground shook and I could see Tsubaki and Lancers gaze fall on me. Assassin leaped away from Lancer, and looked to me as well. I smiled as I looked to Tsubaki.

"Tsubaki, tell me something if you can. What do you know about the Command Seals?"

Tsubaki looked at me for a moment with a confused look, but then smiled at me and laughed.

"That's an easy one, the Command Seals are the things you use to control Servants, and you can use them to make your Servant do things."

Perfect, she has no idea at all. Well, I guess I'll do the polite thing and explain to her why exactly she is going to lose.

"Tsubaki, you know that the more specific the order is, and how powerful the Magus is will effect the power of the Command Spell, right?"

"H-huh? Oh, y-yeah! Of course I know that!"

"Good, then I won't have to explain any further."

I grabbed the glove on my right hand and slowly pulled it off. I held my hand out and looked at my Command Seals. I closed my eyes slowly. I've only got one chance at this, and if my fathers notes were wrong then I'm about to waste a Command Spell, but I have to try this.

_"By the power of my Command Spells, Assassin, instantly appear behind Lancer, and end his life with the knife in your left hand the next instant."_

My Command Seals flashed, and I watched as one of them dimmed significantly. I turned my gaze up from my hand to Lancer. He stood there, blood flowing from his mouth, and I saw Assassin behind him with his knife in the back of Lancer's head. I smiled and looked to Tsubaki, who looked completely terrified. Slowly, I felt the Reality Marble begin to crumble, and before long we flashed back to the Bridge to Shinto Bridge.

Tsubaki fell to her knee's and started crying. Assassin walked over to her after yanking his dagger from Lancer's head, and I watched as Lancer fell on the ground and faded from existence. Assassin drew his knife as he got closer to Tsubaki, and I could see Tohsaka ready to attack him if he made another move.

"Assassin, she lives."

"Are you certain, Master?"

"Yes, nobody dies who does not have to."

Assassin, looked at Tsubaki a moment, then put away his knife and nodded to me. He dematerialized and I walked to Tsubaki, who continued to cry on the ground. I put my hand on her head and played with her hair a bit, she looked like a child when she was like this. I offered her my hand.

"Come on, Tsubaki. It's not safe for you anymore. I'm going to to take you to the Church, you'll be safe there, okay?"

Tsubaki looked up at me and wiped the tears from her eyes. She nodded softly at me and took my hand. I pulled her up and gave her a small smile.

"Don't worry, Tsubaki, its like you said. Now that you lost your Servant, we can be friends again."

I looked to Tohsaka and nodded to her. She smiled and nodded back.

"I'm taking Tsubaki to the Church, we're done here for tonight. What ever you do now is of your own will."

I walked Tsubaki to the Church, she cried most of the way there. Once we arrived, I left her in the care of Caren Ortensia, the Moderator of this War. After I finished saying goodbye to her, and thanking Caren, I returned home. I ordered Assassin to rest and regain his mana while I slept, and went to bed.


	6. Chapter 6

_Fate/Generation - Chapter 6_

Day Four

I walked down the street towards the house Sam is staying at. I told Caster to wait a short distance away just in case, I would be going in alone to show him I meant no harm. As I got closer to the house, Assassin materialized in front of me. I quickly stepped back and got in a fighting stance, but he made no attempt to herm me.

"My Master has sent me to see you in."

Huh? He must have had Assassin watching out in case somebody tried to attack him. That makes sense all things considered.

"Alright."

I followed Assassin as he led me through the front gates of the property and into the house. I took off my shoes and followed him into the Living room, where Sam was waiting for me. From the looks of it, the living room was his Magus workshop, as various tome's and magical instruments were lying around. Sam motioned me to a chair. I sat down and crossed my legs as he spoke to me.

"Tohsaka Haruki, I'm surprised. You came here without your Servant, knowing full well what our standing is at this point. What exactly are you doing?"

"Well, Caster not being at my side was to show I meant no harm, but make no mistake, he is close by."

He paused a moment and grabbed a book from the table behind him, setting it in his lap.

"Assassin, continue to watch for any intruders."

"Yes, Master."

I watched Assassin dematerialize, and felt a little more at ease. Despite Caster begin very close by, I still felt offset by being the only one with a Servant in the room. I tented my fingers as I thought of how I could best put my idea to him into words.

"Now, let's talk."

"Right, well, after the incident at school I think I understand you a little better."

I'm not lying, I think I know exactly what kind of person Sam is. Despite summoning Assassin, and seeming to be colder than I remember before the War began, Sam still has a common interest in protecting innocent people. He did the same thing I was going to at school, and thank you him he may have saved the school before it was too late.

"I see, and what exactly does that mean?"

"Well, you and I have similar goals, to a certain extent at least. You were trying to protect the innocents at the school, just like me. And since both our Servants are not exactly the strongest, I was hoping we could work out some sort of Alliance for the time being until we eliminate the more powerful Servants."

"A ceasefire? Interesting proposal. To be honest I was going to make you my first target, but this is quite the unexpected proposal."

A Alliance with Sam will be one of the best things I could get right now. We have some of the weakest Servants in the war, but with an Alliance we can get rid of all the other Servants and then we can settle the matter between us. This way, at least two level-headed people would get the Grail. I'm sure if Sam got it, he would destroy it too.

"Very well, I'll accept the terms you've set out, for the benefit of us both."

Yes! This is perfect! Now we can end the War together, and no matter who wins in the end the Grail will not fall into the wrong hands. I can only hope he proves to be a good ally. With Assassin and Caster working together, we will probably be quite the match for most Servants. Oh, I should probably tell him about last night too.

"Excellent, oh, and I found the base of Archer's Master last night. Its a flower shop over in Shinto. Seeing as we're working together now, we should attack it tonight."

"Tonight? I think that may be a bit unrealistic. I'd rather let Assassin regain power after my battle with Lancer."

"Lancer? Is that Tsubaki's servant?"

"Yes, I think right now it would be far more important to deal with Tsubaki anyway. Don't you agree?"

I didn't even think of that. If we don't deal with Tsubaki she could try and hold the school hostage again. She also knows where the both of us live, so she'll no doubt be a huge threat to all involved unless we stop her.

"I guess you're right. She might try that thing at school again if we don't watch her."

I talked with Sam for the next half and hour or so on how we should deal with Tsubaki and Lancer. We finally agreed to meet at School tonight. I was escorted off the property by Assassin, and Caster joined me on my way home.

"So, what did thou speak of with thy foe, Master?"

"We're going to meet Sam at the school tonight, and hunt for Lancer."

"I put my faith in thy judgment, Master. Please do not make me regret my actions."

I went home and prepared for the battle that was approaching. I grabbed a pocket full of jems, and left for school a little early. After waiting a few minutes, Sam and Assassin showed up and joined us. He was dressed in the same outfit he wore when I found out he was a Master, and I could only see his eyes.

"Tohsaka, nice to see you were not trying to trick me. Now, do you think Tsubaki is holding up at her house, or elsewhere?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but Caster will be able to find out. I think we should go to her house and see if Caster can sense Lancer. If not, I have a few ideas as to where she might be."

"Very well, lead the way then."

We began walking to Tsubaki's house, and Sam saw always only one step behind me. If Tsubaki was not at her house, there was a very high chance that she would be at her grandmothers house in Shinto, and if not there then she may even be hiding at her uncles house on the other side of town. Sam always tried to ask me questions, but I just asked him the same question to avoid the answer, and that always got him quiet. We arrived at Tsubaki's house after about ten minutes. Sam looked at me, and I gave him a nod.

"Caster, do you feel anything?"

I heard Caster's voice echo through my head.

"I doth not detect any form of Man nor Servant in the dwelling, Master. I suspect they are elsewhere."

"Caster does not feel Lancer's presence here, so they must be elsewhere. I have an idea, follow me."

Sam followed me and I started heading towards Shinto. We'd check out her grandmothers house first. If she was not at any of the places I suspected we'd have to wait and see if she goes to school tomorrow, and ambush her there. We started crossing the Shinto Bridge and I was on my guard. Not far from here is where I watched Caster battle Archer, and saw Caster's Noble Phantasm for the first time. Wait... Who's that up ahead.

"Sam!"

Lancer was waiting for us up ahead. Tsubaki must have been hunting us as well. She trotted out from behind Lancer and smiled at us brightly, then waved at us as if it was the most natural thing to do in the world.

"I found you guys, great! Now I can kill your Servants and we can be friends again!"

I felt my anger boil up. She's trying to kill our Servant's and knock us out of the war just so we can go back to being friends? That's one of the stupidest reasons I've heard for picking a fight I've ever heard in my life!

"Tsubaki! Do you have any idea what you're getting yourself in to? This is the Holy Grail War! You're not strong enough Magus to fight in something like this, you won't survive!"

"I'm sure I'll do just fine, Tohsaka-San. Just look at my Servant, he's so cool isn't he? He so strong and he looks awesome, I'm practically guaranteed to win! Just watch, soon enough you and I will be best friends again and w-"

I watched as Assassin materialized just a short distance from her, hanging from one the support beams on the side of the bridge, and threw some black knives at her. She screamed, and Lancer pulled her behind him for safety. Assassin stayed where he was, this is time for battle!

"Caster, attack!"

Caster threw off his black cloak and opened his book with one hand. He held out the other and began to fire the orbs of white light I saw last night. Meanwhile, Sam's Assassin hailed knives at Lancer. Lancer is really quick though, he's dodging the knives and Caster's spells like nothing, at this rate...

I watched as Lancer's shoulder slammed right into Caster, and he was sent flying backwards. I backed up until I was near him one again. He stood up, and I saw a new glint in his eyes, I've never seen him like that before. His book floated once more the pages began to flip to the page needed on their own. Caster held out his hand again, but this time, he fired black orbs from his palm. They moved much faster than the white ones, and slammed right into Lancer, exploding.

When the smoke cleared I saw Lancer was thrown far away, but he had already gotten back up. This was a very tough Servant, I'm amazed Tsubaki managed to summon one like this. I'll have to change my plan if we-

"Tohska! I have an idea!"

Sam called out to me and I looked to him, he had a confident look on his face. He looked to his Assassin, but then In heard the unfamiliar voice of the man in front of us.

"This is quite the fight, but I find this battlefield lacking. I'll have to change that."

A great wind began to push against me, and I started to lose my balance. Caster moved in front of me and blocked the wind, and then came a bright light. I kept my eyes closed for a good while before I dared open them, I don't want to think of what could have-

"W-what?"

This place, where are we? A long road, and on the side of it, corpses. Corpses impaled on wooden spikes. This horrible sight, I feel my gut twisting in a knot and its all I can do to not just throw up from the sight and smell. I do what I can to regain my composure.

"Is this... A Reality Marble?"

I hear Sam's voice next to me, and I can only nod at him. I'm afraid of what will come out if I open my mouth. Instead I look forward at Lancer, who stood on the road, grinning evilly at us. And I saw Tsubaki behind him, looking terrified. This must be her first time seeing his Noble Phantasm too.

"Behold, my beautiful works of art! This is the legacy of I, Vlad Tepes, the Lord Impaler! My greatest Noble Phantasm, _The Path of Nightmares!_"

Vlad Tepes, that name I knew well enough. From what I knew of him he was a nobleman who impaled any prisoners he took and put them on display in his kingdom, like I'm seeing right now.

"Master!"

I heard Assassin call out as he grabbed Sam and pulled him to him. Just after that, a large wooden stake shot out from the ground where Sam was standing a moment before. I noticed a rumbling under my own feet as well and jumped to the side just before the wooden spike leaped to the surface from under me. the spikes kept coming out from the ground, where ever we went. After I was able to count at least twenty, it stopped.

"Now that we have such a glorious battlefield, lets finish this battle!"

I saw Assassin charge at Lancer, and Caster was moving through his book. He was looking for a specific page, I could tell from the amount of time it was taking him. I looked back and watched as Assassin and Lancer exchanged blows with their blades.

_"Playwright!"_

Caster's voice rang out loudly, and suddenly everything froze again. His Noble Phantasm. Time stopped suddenly and I could no longer move. Assassin and Lancer's blades were ready to collide. What's exactly was he going to-

"And the blade of the Assassin, of which his foe, Lancer hath stayed from here since, broke through the defenses of thy enemy."

Time resumed and I watch Assassin's blade go right past Lancers sword and scrape along his arm. Brilliant! Not only can he effect projectiles, but the weapons of other Servants? Lancer leaped back after being attacked and looked towards Caster, who grinned at him. Just then, I felt the rumbling again. Caster looked down and moved to the side, but not before the spike shot from the ground and left a large gash along his chest.

I rushed to Caster and began to channel mana to him so he could heal. I did all I could to focus, if I don't heal his wounds he might fade away, then its all over and-

My attention was quickly drawn by a loud noise and the shaking of the cobblestone path, I looked and saw its source had been Sam.

"Tsubaki, tell me something if you can. What do you know about the Command Seals?"

Tsubaki looked at Sam for a bit, and then laughed at him.

"That's an easy one, the Command Seals are the things you use to control Servants, and you can use them to make your Servant do things."

She's right, why is Sam asking her such a simple question at a time like this?

"Tsubaki, you know that the more specific the order is, and how powerful the Magus is will effect the power of the Command Spell, right?"

He's right, but I don't see what that has to do with anything right now. What is he getting at?

"H-huh? Oh, y-yeah! Of course I know that!"

"Good, then I won't have to explain any further."

I watched Sam take off the glove on his right hand, and I could see his Command Seals. He held them out and closed his eyes, grinning.

_"By the power of my Command Spells, Assassin, instantly appear behind Lancer, and end his life with the knife in your left hand the next instant."_

I looked to Lancer, and just as Sam commanded, Assassin appeared behind him, and in the same second I watched him plunge the knife in his left hand into the back of Lancers head. Blood began to flow out of Lancers mouth, and I saw Tsubaki looking at the sight dumbstruck.

Lancer fell to his knees and then to the floor as he began to fade from existence. I could see Assassin walking towards Tsubaki. I grabbed the jems in my pocket. If he thinks of laying a finger on her I'm going to-

"Assassin, she lives."

"Are you certain, Master?"

"Yes, nobody dies who does not have to."

Assassin looked at Tsubaki, then to Sam, and dematerialized. Sam then walked over to Tsubaki, who had been crying since she watched Lancer fall, and helped her up. I listened to him soothe her a bit and I smiled. I knew that he really was a caring and kind person. I would not mind losing the Grail War, so long as he was the person who got it.

"I'm taking Tsubaki to the Church, we're done here for tonight. What ever you do now is of your own will."

I nodded and began to walk the other way, back home. My thought drifted back to Sam's move that killed Lancer. How on Earth did you do that? I've never heard of Command Spells being able to do something like that.

"Caster, did you know you could do that with a command Spell?"

"I apologize, Master. I no not of which the trickery thy ally used to create such an outcome with the Command Spell."

I frowned and nodded to Caster. I walked along the walkway of the bridge towards Fuyuki. It was very quiet, except for... What is that noise anyway. It sounds like somebody-

I look up and see somebody standing atop the bridge wearing a long white coat. They are looking right at me, clapping their hands slowly.

"What the..?"

I see a dim light coming from his left hand, that... Can't possibly be...

"Command Seals?"

No doubt, they made be far away, but the size and red glow coming from his left hand is certainly a set of command Seals. Eventually, he stops clapping and turns around. He jumps from the bridge and lands on the walkway on the complete other side of the bridge.

"Caster... Did you see that?"

"Indeed I did, Master. It appear thou hath more a foe than we had thought."

So now I'm being watched by another Master? Great. Maybe it was Archer's Master, we did fight Archer close by here last night. At any rate, just standing here thinking about it will get me nothing but a cold. I sighed and returned home with Caster. Tonight I'm going to read into all the books I have on Command Seals and see what I can find out.


	7. Chapter 7

Fate/Generation - Chapter 7

Day Five

I cleaned off the kitchen table as I finished breakfast. Assassin was in the basement regaining his lost mana. Today, I had no plans, I did not truly intend to finish Tsubaki last night, so I cannot think of what to do. I may go in search of Archer tonight, but my day seems empty. I wonder...

I pull out my cell phone and quickly find her number in my contacts. I hold the phone to my ear, and she answers almost as soon as I call.

"Yeah, Sam? What is it?"

"Ah, Tohsaka-san, good. I was just wondering you had any plans for the day. I'm going to be letting Assassin rest after the incident last night, and I trust you're letting Caster do the same?"

"Well, yeah. I guess I'm free today, why? Do you want to go searching for another Master without the Servants?"

"No no, that's too risky for the both of us. I simply think it would be nice to go an enjoy a common day. We could go visit Tsubaki at the Church."

"Hmm, well I don't really have anything else to do, and I do want to ask you some questions. Okay, sure. Come by my house in a little bit, okay?"

"Of course, but don't get your hopes up, I'm not taking you home with me."

I wonder how many loops that will throw her through. Its almost funnier just to think about it than to see the actual results. I go to the basement and tell Assassin where I will be today, I then pack up a few books, get my gloves, and head out to the Tohsaka residence. The way there, I think about the current state of her Servant. From what I saw of Caster's wounds, he won't be recovered until tomorrow morning. Assassin however, should be back to full power by tonight. I could use this as my chance to take Tohsaka out of the war...

Odd, it feels a bit off putting to strike at Tohsaka when she is weakened like that. Maybe its because of the Alliance or perhaps its because Caster was hurt helping Assassin, but either way, I can't bring myself to attack her while she is weak. I suppose the chance will come again soon anyway. As I ponder this, I arrive at the Tohsaka household, where I see Haruki waiting for me.

"Hey, Tohsaka, good to see you. This is the... fourth... time I've seen you not in your school uniform?"

Tohsaka was wearing a black sweater and long black skirt as opposed to her usual uniform. Simple and casual clothing. She smiled and nodded to me.

"I think that right, now let's go, its a nice day today."

She was not lying at all. The weather was fairly warm for November, and there were few clouds in the sky. We made our way to the park, then to the bridge to go into Shinto. Tohsaka stopped when we reached a certain point, a short distance from where we had fought earlier. I saw the ground of the walkway a little bit ahead was damaged from the battle. Tohsaka turned to me.

"Last night, when I was leaving, I saw a man up there."

She pointed up to the beams on the top of the bridge.

"He had Command Seals on his left hand. He was a Master. I'm sure he was watching our fight with Lancer."

"Hmph, my have been pretty boring for him when we were pulled into the Reality Marble then."

Interesting, so another Master was watching us fight Lancer? It is strange that he did not attack us after the battle was over, as both our Servants were in no shape to fight a fresh one. I sighed softly and began to walk once more.

After about an hour, we both arrived at Kotomine Church. According to my fathers notes, the Church use to be run by Risei Kotomine during the third and fourth Holy Grail Wars, and his son Kotomine Kirei during the Fifth. Apparently Kirei also took part in the Fifth War with a Servant left over from the Fourth War and a Servant he stole from another Master during the Fifth.

I stepped inside with Tohsaka, and as soon as we were inside I saw Caren Ortensia and Tsubaki speaking with a man I had not seen in the Church before. He had a long white coat and golden cross necklace. Both his hands were covered in white gloves, and I felt a powerful magic presence coming from him.

"I just stopped in to see how she was doing, Sister. I am not seeking protection."

"Good, I didn't want to have to remind you of the rules. She told you she was fine, now please, see yourself out."

"Very well, Sister. Have a nice day."

The figure turned from Caren to us as he made his way to the entrance. I could feel Tohsaka grab a hold of the back of my coat and watch him as he passed us. He had a very eerie looking smile on his face as he made his way out. The moment the door closed, Tohsaka pulled on the back of my shirt.

"Sam! That was him! That was the man I saw watching us last night!"

I blinked, that's quite the coincidence. We are spied on from afar one night, and the next day we happen to run into him on neutral territory. Maybe Caren would have more information on him. I'm sure if I don't ask, Tohsaka will. I walk over to Caren, who was smiling at Tsubaki. I don't think she noticed us coming in.

"Excuse me, Sister Ortensia."

"Oh, hello there. Here to visit Tsubaki? Oh, and its nice to see you again Haruki."

Tohsaka smiled softly at Caren and bowed her head softly.

"Likewise, Sister. Me and Sam came to visit our friend here now that she isn't forced to fight us."

"I see, so I'm guessing that means you two are cooperating?"

"That's about right, just for now, at least."

I noticed Tsubaki looking at us sadly, and I left Caren and Tohsaka to their talk as I walked over to her. She smiled a bit at me and moved to meet me.

"Hey Sam! Thanks again for taking me here, I feel a lot safer now."

She laughed softly.

"It's funny, I didn't really expect to lose... let alone this early. But, its okay, we can be friends like we use to now."

"That's right, but I have a question."

This has been on my mind for quite some time. And the more I think about it the more it bothers me. If I can get an answer then I should be able to focus more and that will go well for me in the long run.

"Tsubaki... what did you want from the Grail anyway?"

"Oh, well. Haha... That's, a secret of course! If you make a wish it won't come true if you tell somebody!"

"...but you're out of the War already. So there is no point in not telling me."

I'm sure she knows that just as well as I do. Is it really that important that she can't tell me?

"Well... its nothing important really."

That's a lie. If it wasn't important to her then she would not have been chosen by the Grail in the first place. She's certainly trying to hide something, but I have the feeling the more I pry the more she's going to try and avoid the subject.

"Alright, just forget it. Anyway, how are you doing?"

"I'm good, I miss Vlad though. Having him around made me feel really safe, like nothing could ever hurt me."

I know that feeling. When ever Assassin in with my in Spirit form, I always know that I have little risk of being in any real danger. I never thought of how vulnerable I would feel if I lost Assassin. Then again, I'm sure I would not have to worry about it, I'm going to win this war.

I look behind myself and see Tohsaka and Caren still talking. They must be old friends or something, or maybe she is just asking about the man who was just here. Either way, I'm sure I'll find out about it eventually.

"Hey Sam."

"Yeah, Tsubaki?"

"You're going to keep coming to visit, right?"

Huh? What's with this all of a sudden? Am I really that important to her, or is she just feeling weak to the point that she wants as many people by her side as possible? Well, I suppose it won't hurt my plans if I visit her now and then.

"Sure, I'll stop by when I can. Oh, and who was that man who was here just a minute ago, if you know."

"I don't know much about him. Sister Ortensia called him Katsurou, that's all I can tell you. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it, by the way, what have you been doing since you got here? I can't imagine being in a church for a whole day would be that entertaining."

Katsurou, huh? I'll have to look up more about him when I get back home. If what Tohsaka said was true, he could very well be another Master I'll eventually have to defeat.

"Oh, this and that, mostly helping Sister Ortensia with some of the work around here."

"I see, well, I best get going now. You have my number, call me if you need anything."

"I will, bye!"

I walk to the door, waving to Tohsaka and Caren as I pass them, and head outside. The sun is quite high in the sky at this point, I guess I was in there longer than I thought. I head down to Shinto to see if there is anything I could do today to entertain myself. I think Tohsaka said something about a Master in Shinto, but in the middle of the day that should not be of any concern.

I walk through the streets, looking at the stalls on the streets and simply enjoying the nice day. I went to the store and bought some food, its been a long time since I had a nice lunch in the park. I think that was one of the first things I did when I got here, a wonderful memory. I walked across the bridge from Shinto, seeing a repair crew fixing the section of pathway where we had our fight with Lancer, and made my way to the park.

I smiled as I saw all the people in the park, it was a beautiful day so I fully expected a lot of people to be here. I found an empty bench and sat down, I took off my gloves and started digging through the bag of food I bought from the store. I've never eaten fast food in this country before, so I wonder what-

"Bonjour, my sir."

"Huh?"

I looked up from my bag and saw a man standing oddly close to me. He wore a long blue coat and had short blonde hair. He smiled at me and looked at my hands.

"A very interesting tattoo you have there, isn't it?"

His accent... French? Yeah, it explains his greeting. But, tattoo? He must mean the Command Seals. It probably was a bad idea to take off the gloves while in public, but it way too warm to be wearing them.

"I think its pretty neat. I got it done a few days ago."

The man looked at me a moment, then nodded and smiled. He then motioned his hand to the bench.

"You do not mind if I take the seat next to you, do you?"

"Go right ahead."

As much as this man had worried me, he seems awfully polite. I almost feel bad for wanting to run when he first saw my Command Seals. I would offer him some of the food I bought, but I'm afraid of how childish that would make the both of us seem if I did.

"So where did you get your tattoo done then?"

"Huh? Oh, right. Well, there is this place in the south end of Shinto... HGW I think its called."

Did I really just abbreviate the Holy Grail War as a tattoo parlor? I need to think of better lies or people are going to see right through me.

"I see, I've heard of that place before, I heard it just reopened recently."

"Heh, yeah, that's right."

Wait, is that a real place? If it is then I must be the luckiest man on the face of the Earth right now. I don't know a lot about tattoo's because I've never had the slightest desire to get one. And I especially have no clue as to any Japanese tattoo parlors. At any rate, the man is standing up, so he must be getting ready to leave.

"Well, it was a very nice chat. I'm sure we'll see each other again soon enough. Oh, and I never introduced myself, my name is Anton Honoré."

That confirms it, that name is certainly French. But what does he mean by 'I am sure we will see each other again soon enough.' Its a bit eerie for him to just say something like that out of nowhere.

"Right, well, have a nice day. It was nice meeting you."

"Like wise, good sir. And please do tell me if-"

He reached his hand for his sleeve and pulled it back a bit, showing me... no way.

Command Seals, resting on the back of his wrist, plain as day. I can't think, I was found by another Master? No, this is bad, what if his Servant is with him? I'll be dead in seconds. I have to focus, clear your head. Calm down, calm down.

"-you find anybody else with tattoo's from the Holy Grail War."

He smiled at me and pulled his sleeve back. He turned from me and walked away casually, as if he did this sort of thing every day. I sat there awestruck, and quickly leapt from my seat. I need to get home, I need to find shelter, Assassin will protect me if I get home, I need to get there before I'm killed out here. I need to run!

I rush home as fast as I can and lock the doors. I run to the basement where Assassin is regaining mana and explain to him everything that just happened to me. After a while, I calm down and go to the living room. I begin my research of Anton Honoré and the Katsurou character Tsubaki mentioned. I should also plan for what to do tomorrow as well.


	8. Chapter 8

_Fate/Generation - Chapter 8_

Day Five

I showered longer than usual today, probably to help wake myself up. I was up well into the night studying everything we had in the house about the Command Seals, and could not find anything relating to how Sam made Assassin kill Lancer with a single strike. I gave up around three in the morning, and this is the result. I ate breakfast quickly and went back to the library to see if I missed anything. I'm hoping if I look through everything again I might get a hint at-

"Huh?"

My phone is ringing? This early? I pull my phone from my pocket and check to see who is calling. It's Sam. Of course, I flip it open as soon as I can.

"Yeah, Sam? What is it?"

"Ah, Tohsaka-san, good. I was just wondering you had any plans for the day. I'm going to be letting Assassin rest after the incident last night, and I trust you're letting Caster do the same?"

"Well, yeah. I guess I'm free today, why? Do you want to go searching for another Master without the Servants?"

"No no, that's too risky for the both of us. I simply think it would be nice to go an enjoy a common day. We could go visit Tsubaki at the Church."

"Hmm, well I don't really have anything else to do, and I do want to ask you some questions. Okay, sure. Come by my house in a little bit, okay?"

"Of course, but don't get your hopes up, I'm not taking you home with me."

W-what? Is he serious? Oh I have half a mind to throttle him when I see him! Okay okay, calm down, this is your chance to ask him about the Command Seals, Haruki. Don't blow it! I know he's just saying things like that because he wants to see me worked up. Alright, I better get ready.

I put on some casual clothing and tell mom and dad where I'm going. I go outside and wait. He doesn't take long at all and I see him after waiting only a minute or two.

"Hey, Tohsaka, good to see you. This is the... fourth... time I've seen you not in your school uniform?"

I nod and him and smile. I'm happy to see him in casual clothing. Between the black outfit he has for fighting Master's, and his school uniform, I almost never see him like this. Its kind of refreshing.

"I think that right, now let's go, its a nice day today."

Sam only nods at me and we begin our walk towards the Church. We get to the Shinto bridge fairly quickly, and I'm reminded of the events of last night. It would be a good idea to tell him, seeing as we're cooperating, and he may have more of an idea about who he was, seeing as he appears to have been preparing for this a lot longer than I have.

"Last night, when I was leaving, I saw a man up there."

I point to where I saw the man in the white coat from yesterday.

"He had Command Seals on his left hand. He was a Master. I'm sure he was watching our fight with Lancer."

Sam shrugs softly and starts to walk again, is he really not interested in something this important?

"Hmph, must have been pretty boring for him when we were pulled into the Reality Marble then."

I sigh softly and we continue our walk. After nearly an hour we arrive at Kotomine Church. My mom and dad told me that the last moderator of the Holy Grail war had his own Servant, and they had to fight him. I'm sure Sister Ortensia would not do anything like that. I enter the Church behind Sam and I see Sister Caren and Tsubaki as soon as I walk in. I look to who they are speaking with and-

No... No, no, no! It's him! The man from the bridge, the other Master, why is he here? I have to tell Sam right away... but if I tell him now he might hear us, I have to keep my calm. I can't really hear what he is saying to Sister Ortensia, but she remains expressionless like always.

After a while, the man in the white coat turns from Sister Ortensia and heads out. I can see him grinning at me from the corner of my eye as he walks past. When I hear the door shut behind me, I tug on Sam's shirt frantically.

"Sam! That was him! That was the man I saw watching us last night!"

He pondered this for a moment and nodded to me. Then he turned his attention back to Sister Ortensia.

"Excuse me, Sister Ortensia."

"Oh, hello there. Here to visit Tsubaki? Oh, and it's nice to see you again Haruki."

I smile at Sister Ortensia and bow my head to her as respectfully as I can. Apparently dad and Sister Ortensia had a bit of a thing during the False Grail war before Dad married Mom, but I was never told much about it. I'm guessing it's for the best.

"Likewise, Sister. Me and Sam came to visit our friend here now that she isn't forced to fight us."

"I see, so I'm guessing that means you two are cooperating?"

"That's about right, just for now, at least."

I saw Sam move over to talk with Tsubaki, so I took the liberty of asking sister Ortensia a few questions.

"Sister, who was that man just now?"

"Oh, him? He's an old apprentice of my Father, Katsurou Hacamachi. He's one of your many opponents."

"So he really is a Master. Do you know what Class of Servant he has?"

"I'm afraid not, I would tell you otherwise. I don't really like him all that much, truth be told."

"Alright, well I have a few other questions if you don't mind me asking."

"Of course, go right ahead."

I need to ask her about the Command Seals. From what I know of Sister Ortensia, she was the Master of two Servants, and very powerful one's at that. She might no more about that trick Sam used last night.

"Well, last night, Sam used a Command Seal on his Assassin, and I watched with my own eyes, Assassin killing Lancer in a single strike after it. I've never heard of anything like that before, have you?"

"A single strike? Was it a Noble Phantasm?"

"Not at all, it was a regular attack with his knife."

"That's very odd, I've never heard of anything like that before, I'm sorry."

I nodded and bowed to Sister Ortensia and looked to Tsubaki. She was alone again, and I did not see Sam anywhere. He must have left, damn it! I wanted to ask him myself if I could not find out from Sister Ortensia. Oh well, I may be able to find him if I head out now. I bow to Sister Ortensia once more and make my way out.

I start my search in downtown Shinto and continue searching until I see the sun setting. I wonder if I just wasted my entire day out of mere curiosity, I may have. Anyway, I should probably head home quickly. Or I'll be a sitting duck out here. I start walking home, and once I cross the bridge I slow down a bit. It's only about twenty more minutes to my house and-

"Hehehe..."

Huh? What was-

"Helloooooooo~! I was wondering if you'd notice me!"

A woman was standing on the bridge I had just crossed. She had purple hair as well as a green dress on, next to her was-

"A-Archer..."

The man in the red tunic floated in mid-air next to her, bow in hand. She laughed a bit more and covered her mouth with her hand. I could see her Command Seals clearly in the darkness, she must be Archer's Master.

"I thought I might find you, but without your Servant? Such a shame, I expected more from Caster's Master. Oh well, let me introduce myself before you die. My name is Akako Shizuni, I'm sure you know my shop already, Archer here had to chase you away."

She laughed again, this is really bad. I'm going to have to try and get her to leave, or-

"Master, let me end her life quickly. All this taunting is not honorable."

"Oh, fine. Go on and kill her."

He quickly pulls an arrow across the string of his bow and releases it. It flies strait for me, I need to do something! I block my face with my arms.

"Caster!"

I feel the Command Seals on my hands burning and a blinding light appear before me. I then hear the snap of an arrow breaking as I look up.

There he is, William Shakespeare, the Caster class Servant. A large shield is raised in order to cover us both, and he looks to me.

"Master, thou art a lady of many enemies. Perhaps thou should take me with you when next you travel out."

He turns his attention back to the fight and throws his book. It floats in front of him and opens up. I see Archer pulling a few arrows back on his bow as Caster holds a hand out. He clenches a fist and three blue orbs rise from the ground. They circle above Caster's head and soon form a triangle. The three orbs then form beams which connect them all together, and then another which makes them all meet in the middle.

Archer fires a volley of arrows towards us, and I crouch to the ground while covering my head. I'm going to die if Caster doesn't do something! Just at that time, I hear a strange sound I have yet to hear before, and odd humming noise. I look up and see a beam, coming from the point where the beams from the orbs meet. It traces along and destroys all the arrows quickly. Archer jumps into the air and fires even more, which Caster easily destroys.

Archer grits his teeth and pulls a large green arrow from his quiver. He pulls back the string and fires it. Caster's beam of course destroys it, but a large cloud of green gas surges forward and covers us. I can't breathe, what is this? Caster holds his breath and fires the beam directly at Archer, who has a hard time dodging it. He eventually leaps and fires more arrows at us which caster destroys with his beam.

Soon, the three orbs fade and the beam with it. Caster growls softly and flings off his cloak. He leaps forward and begins firing dozens of his black orbs, which explode on contact with the ground and Archer. I watch Archer get sent flying backwards, and Archer's Master rushes to him. She gives us an very angry look at screams.

"Archer! I command you to keep fighting!"

Archer's body jolted a bit, and he stood up. She must have just used one of her Command Spells, what a waste. Caster grins as he opens his book once more, his coat flapping from some sort of non existent wind as he flips the pages. Archer leaps up and fires his arrows relentlessly at Caster, who blocks them with his shield. As Caster looks through the book, I notice Archer fitting a large black arrow to the string.

"Caster! Look out!"

Caster looks up just in time to see his shield shatter and explode. He is sent flying backwards, book in hand, and tumbles across the asphalt. I help him up and give him some of my mana to help, he glares at Archer.

"Thou art a foe of which I have underestimated. I shall give you no quarter!"

Caster stretches his arms out and the book, now floating in front of him, flies through its pages in a blur. I see thousands of the white orbs appear around Caster, and he then lowers his arms. All the orbs which he had summoned flew forward toward Archer and his escape routes. He was hit by several of them and was tossed backwards. Archer quickly got up and closed his eyes. He then summoned a enormous golden arrow from out of nowhere and pulled it across his bow string. He aimed it carefully and snapped his eyes open.

"

Day Five

I showered longer than usual today, probably to help wake myself up. I was up well into the night studying everything we had in the house about the Command Seals, and could not find anything relating to how Sam made Assassin kill Lancer with a single strike. I gave up around three in the morning, and this is the result. I ate breakfast quickly and went back to the library to see if I missed anything. I'm hoping if I look through everything again I might get a hint at-

"Huh?"

My phone is ringing? This early? I pull my phone from my pocket and check to see who is calling. It's Sam. Of course, I flip it open as soon as I can.

"Yeah, Sam? What is it?"

"Ah, Tohsaka-san, good. I was just wondering you had any plans for the day. I'm going to be letting Assassin rest after the incident last night, and I trust you're letting Caster do the same?"

"Well, yeah. I guess I'm free today, why? Do you want to go searching for another Master without the Servants?"

"No no, that's too risky for the both of us. I simply think it would be nice to go an enjoy a common day. We could go visit Tsubaki at the Church."

"Hmm, well I don't really have anything else to do, and I do want to ask you some questions. Okay, sure. Come by my house in a little bit, okay?"

"Of course, but don't get your hopes up, I'm not taking you home with me."

W-what? Is he serious? Oh I have half a mind to throttle him when I see him! Okay okay, calm down, this is your chance to ask him about the Command Seals, Haruki. Don't blow it! I know he's just saying things like that because he wants to see me worked up. Alright, I better get ready.

I put on some casual clothing and tell mom and dad where I'm going. I go outside and wait. He doesn't take long at all and I see him after waiting only a minute or two.

"Hey, Tohsaka, good to see you. This is the... fourth... time I've seen you not in your school uniform?"

I nod and him and smile. I'm happy to see him in casual clothing. Between the black outfit he has for fighting Master's, and his school uniform, I almost never see him like this. Its kind of refreshing.

"I think that right, now let's go, its a nice day today."

Sam only nods at me and we begin our walk towards the Church. We get to the Shinto bridge fairly quickly, and I'm reminded of the events of last night. It would be a good idea to tell him, seeing as we're cooperating, and he may have more of an idea about who he was, seeing as he appears to have been preparing for this a lot longer than I have.

"Last night, when I was leaving, I saw a man up there."

I point to where I saw the man in the white coat from yesterday.

"He had Command Seals on his left hand. He was a Master. I'm sure he was watching our fight with Lancer."

Sam shrugs softly and starts to walk again, is he really not interested in something this important?

"Hmph, must have been pretty boring for him when we were pulled into the Reality Marble then."

I sigh softly and we continue our walk. After nearly an hour we arrive at Kotomine Church. My mom and dad told me that the last moderator of the Holy Grail war had his own Servant, and they had to fight him. I'm sure Sister Ortensia would not do anything like that. I enter the Church behind Sam and I see Sister Caren and Tsubaki as soon as I walk in. I look to who they are speaking with and-

No... No, no, no! It's him! The man from the bridge, the other Master, why is he here? I have to tell Sam right away... but if I tell him now he might hear us, I have to keep my calm. I can't really hear what he is saying to Sister Ortensia, but she remains expressionless like always.

After a while, the man in the white coat turns from Sister Ortensia and heads out. I can see him grinning at me from the corner of my eye as he walks past. When I hear the door shut behind me, I tug on Sam's shirt frantically.

"Sam! That was him! That was the man I saw watching us last night!"

He pondered this for a moment and nodded to me. Then he turned his attention back to Sister Ortensia.

"Excuse me, Sister Ortensia."

"Oh, hello there. Here to visit Tsubaki? Oh, and it's nice to see you again Haruki."

I smile at Sister Ortensia and bow my head to her as respectfully as I can. Apparently dad and Sister Ortensia had a bit of a thing during the False Grail war before Dad married Mom, but I was never told much about it. I'm guessing it's for the best.

"Likewise, Sister. Me and Sam came to visit our friend here now that she isn't forced to fight us."

"I see, so I'm guessing that means you two are cooperating?"

"That's about right, just for now, at least."

I saw Sam move over to talk with Tsubaki, so I took the liberty of asking sister Ortensia a few questions.

"Sister, who was that man just now?"

"Oh, him? He's an old apprentice of my Father, Katsurou Hacamachi. He's one of your many opponents."

"So he really is a Master. Do you know what Class of Servant he has?"

"I'm afraid not, I would tell you otherwise. I don't really like him all that much, truth be told."

"Alright, well I have a few other questions if you don't mind me asking."

"Of course, go right ahead."

I need to ask her about the Command Seals. From what I know of Sister Ortensia, she was the Master of two Servants, and very powerful one's at that. She might no more about that trick Sam used last night.

"Well, last night, Sam used a Command Seal on his Assassin, and I watched with my own eyes, Assassin killing Lancer in a single strike after it. I've never heard of anything like that before, have you?"

"A single strike? Was it a Noble Phantasm?"

"Not at all, it was a regular attack with his knife."

"That's very odd, I've never heard of anything like that before, I'm sorry."

I nodded and bowed to Sister Ortensia and looked to Tsubaki. She was alone again, and I did not see Sam anywhere. He must have left, damn it! I wanted to ask him myself if I could not find out from Sister Ortensia. Oh well, I may be able to find him if I head out now. I bow to Sister Ortensia once more and make my way out.

I start my search in downtown Shinto and continue searching until I see the sun setting. I wonder if I just wasted my entire day out of mere curiosity, I may have. Anyway, I should probably head home quickly. Or I'll be a sitting duck out here. I start walking home, and once I cross the bridge I slow down a bit. It's only about twenty more minutes to my house and-

"Hehehe..."

Huh? What was-

"Helloooooooo~! I was wondering if you'd notice me!"

A woman was standing on the bridge I had just crossed. She had purple hair as well as a green dress on, next to her was-

"A-Archer..."

The man in the red tunic floated in mid-air next to her, bow in hand. She laughed a bit more and covered her mouth with her hand. I could see her Command Seals clearly in the darkness, she must be Archer's Master.

"I thought I might find you, but without your Servant? Such a shame, I expected more from Caster's Master. Oh well, let me introduce myself before you die. My name is Akako Shizuni, I'm sure you know my shop already, Archer here had to chase you away."

She laughed again, this is really bad. I'm going to have to try and get her to leave, or-

"Master, let me end her life quickly. All this taunting is not honorable."

"Oh, fine. Go on and kill her."

He quickly pulls an arrow across the string of his bow and releases it. It flies strait for me, I need to do something! I block my face with my arms.

"Caster!"

I feel the Command Seals on my hands burning and a blinding light appear before me. I then hear the snap of an arrow breaking as I look up.

There he is, William Shakespeare, the Caster class Servant. A large shield is raised in order to cover us both, and he looks to me.

"Master, thou art a lady of many enemies. Perhaps thou should take me with you when next you travel out."

He turns his attention back to the fight and throws his book. It floats in front of him and opens up. I see Archer pulling a few arrows back on his bow as Caster holds a hand out. He clenches a fist and three blue orbs rise from the ground. They circle above Caster's head and soon form a triangle. The three orbs then form beams which connect them all together, and then another which makes them all meet in the middle.

Archer fires a volley of arrows towards us, and I crouch to the ground while covering my head. I'm going to die if Caster doesn't do something! Just at that time, I hear a strange sound I have yet to hear before, and odd humming noise. I look up and see a beam, coming from the point where the beams from the orbs meet. It traces along and destroys all the arrows quickly. Archer jumps into the air and fires even more, which Caster easily destroys.

Archer grits his teeth and pulls a large green arrow from his quiver. He pulls back the string and fires it. Caster's beam of course destroys it, but a large cloud of green gas surges forward and covers us. I can't breathe, what is this? Caster holds his breath and fires the beam directly at Archer, who has a hard time dodging it. He eventually leaps and fires more arrows at us which caster destroys with his beam.

Soon, the three orbs fade and the beam with it. Caster growls softly and flings off his cloak. He leaps forward and begins firing dozens of his black orbs, which explode on contact with the ground and Archer. I watch Archer get sent flying backwards, and Archer's Master rushes to him. She gives us an very angry look at screams.

"Archer! I command you to keep fighting!"

Archer's body jolted a bit, and he stood up. She must have just used one of her Command Spells, what a waste. Caster grins as he opens his book once more, his coat flapping from some sort of non existent wind as he flips the pages. Archer leaps up and fires his arrows relentlessly at Caster, who blocks them with his shield. As Caster looks through the book, I notice Archer fitting a large black arrow to the string.

"Caster! Look out!"

Caster looks up just in time to see his shield shatter and explode. He is sent flying backwards, book in hand, and tumbles across the asphalt. I help him up and give him some of my mana to help, he glares at Archer.

"Thou art a foe of which I have underestimated. I shall give you no quarter!"

Caster stretches his arms out and the book, now floating in front of him, flies through its pages in a blur. I see thousands of the white orbs appear around Caster, and he then lowers his arms. All the orbs which he had summoned flew forward toward Archer and his escape routes. He was hit by several of them and was tossed backwards. Archer quickly got up and closed his eyes. He then summoned a enormous golden arrow from out of nowhere and pulled it across his bow string. He aimed it carefully and snapped his eyes open.

"_Percusserit Solis!_"

The arrow flew toward us with a light so bright I could not look at it. Caster quickly put his shield up, but it was no use, the arrow broke right through and exploded with an enormous impact.

"Oww... w-what the..."

I feel dizzy, I need to get up quickly. Where's Caster? If I survived that then I guarantee he did. I look around and see Caster getting back to his feet. He opens his book again, despite the blood flowing from a gash on his cheek. He really is not going to give up this fight, is he? If he won't then neither will-

"Attaquer!"

What in the-? I turn to my side just in time to see two men riding a horse towards us. The dust being kicked up behind the horse, one would think it was a stampede instead of one animal. The men on the horse look completely different from one another. One is wearing a long blue coat and has short blonde hair. The other is wearing brown leather armor, has decently lengthed black hair, and is holding a sword.

No doubt, from the magical energy I feel coming from them, that is surely another Servant and Master. I notice the man in the blue coat, no doubt the Master, stand on the back of the horse and leap towards Archer's Master. He points his finger and begins to fire at her. She responds with her own shield as Archer goes to intercept the Servant, probably a Rider class Servant. The two clash as the Master have their magical duel.

"Akako! What in God's name have you done to yourself?"

"Shut up, old man! I won't let you lie to me any longer!"

The Master's were fighting more ferociously than their Servants, who seemed to be perfectly content with their battle. Rider chased down Archer every time he leaped away, and swatted away his arrows like nothing. This is our chance to run! I look to Caster and he nods before I say a word. He grabs me carefully and leaps in the direction of my house. After only a few minutes, I return safely home.

I send Caster back to the basement so he can regain his mana, and I go to bed quickly. I am completely exhausted from everything that's happened, and right now all I want is some sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

_Fate/Generation - Chapter 8_

Day Five

I showered longer than usual today, probably to help wake myself up. I was up well into the night studying everything we had in the house about the Command Seals, and could not find anything relating to how Sam made Assassin kill Lancer with a single strike. I gave up around three in the morning, and this is the result. I ate breakfast quickly and went back to the library to see if I missed anything. I'm hoping if I look through everything again I might get a hint at-

"Huh?"

My phone is ringing? This early? I pull my phone from my pocket and check to see who is calling. It's Sam. Of course, I flip it open as soon as I can.

"Yeah, Sam? What is it?"

"Ah, Tohsaka-san, good. I was just wondering you had any plans for the day. I'm going to be letting Assassin rest after the incident last night, and I trust you're letting Caster do the same?"

"Well, yeah. I guess I'm free today, why? Do you want to go searching for another Master without the Servants?"

"No no, that's too risky for the both of us. I simply think it would be nice to go an enjoy a common day. We could go visit Tsubaki at the Church."

"Hmm, well I don't really have anything else to do, and I do want to ask you some questions. Okay, sure. Come by my house in a little bit, okay?"

"Of course, but don't get your hopes up, I'm not taking you home with me."

W-what? Is he serious? Oh I have half a mind to throttle him when I see him! Okay okay, calm down, this is your chance to ask him about the Command Seals, Haruki. Don't blow it! I know he's just saying things like that because he wants to see me worked up. Alright, I better get ready.

I put on some casual clothing and tell mom and dad where I'm going. I go outside and wait. He doesn't take long at all and I see him after waiting only a minute or two.

"Hey, Tohsaka, good to see you. This is the... fourth... time I've seen you not in your school uniform?"

I nod and him and smile. I'm happy to see him in casual clothing. Between the black outfit he has for fighting Master's, and his school uniform, I almost never see him like this. Its kind of refreshing.

"I think that right, now let's go, its a nice day today."

Sam only nods at me and we begin our walk towards the Church. We get to the Shinto bridge fairly quickly, and I'm reminded of the events of last night. It would be a good idea to tell him, seeing as we're cooperating, and he may have more of an idea about who he was, seeing as he appears to have been preparing for this a lot longer than I have.

"Last night, when I was leaving, I saw a man up there."

I point to where I saw the man in the white coat from yesterday.

"He had Command Seals on his left hand. He was a Master. I'm sure he was watching our fight with Lancer."

Sam shrugs softly and starts to walk again, is he really not interested in something this important?

"Hmph, must have been pretty boring for him when we were pulled into the Reality Marble then."

I sigh softly and we continue our walk. After nearly an hour we arrive at Kotomine Church. My mom and dad told me that the last moderator of the Holy Grail war had his own Servant, and they had to fight him. I'm sure Sister Ortensia would not do anything like that. I enter the Church behind Sam and I see Sister Caren and Tsubaki as soon as I walk in. I look to who they are speaking with and-

No... No, no, no! It's him! The man from the bridge, the other Master, why is he here? I have to tell Sam right away... but if I tell him now he might hear us, I have to keep my calm. I can't really hear what he is saying to Sister Ortensia, but she remains expressionless like always.

After a while, the man in the white coat turns from Sister Ortensia and heads out. I can see him grinning at me from the corner of my eye as he walks past. When I hear the door shut behind me, I tug on Sam's shirt frantically.

"Sam! That was him! That was the man I saw watching us last night!"

He pondered this for a moment and nodded to me. Then he turned his attention back to Sister Ortensia.

"Excuse me, Sister Ortensia."

"Oh, hello there. Here to visit Tsubaki? Oh, and it's nice to see you again Haruki."

I smile at Sister Ortensia and bow my head to her as respectfully as I can. Apparently dad and Sister Ortensia had a bit of a thing during the False Grail war before Dad married Mom, but I was never told much about it. I'm guessing it's for the best.

"Likewise, Sister. Me and Sam came to visit our friend here now that she isn't forced to fight us."

"I see, so I'm guessing that means you two are cooperating?"

"That's about right, just for now, at least."

I saw Sam move over to talk with Tsubaki, so I took the liberty of asking sister Ortensia a few questions.

"Sister, who was that man just now?"

"Oh, him? He's an old apprentice of my Father, Katsurou Hacamachi. He's one of your many opponents."

"So he really is a Master. Do you know what Class of Servant he has?"

"I'm afraid not, I would tell you otherwise. I don't really like him all that much, truth be told."

"Alright, well I have a few other questions if you don't mind me asking."

"Of course, go right ahead."

I need to ask her about the Command Seals. From what I know of Sister Ortensia, she was the Master of two Servants, and very powerful one's at that. She might no more about that trick Sam used last night.

"Well, last night, Sam used a Command Seal on his Assassin, and I watched with my own eyes, Assassin killing Lancer in a single strike after it. I've never heard of anything like that before, have you?"

"A single strike? Was it a Noble Phantasm?"

"Not at all, it was a regular attack with his knife."

"That's very odd, I've never heard of anything like that before, I'm sorry."

I nodded and bowed to Sister Ortensia and looked to Tsubaki. She was alone again, and I did not see Sam anywhere. He must have left, damn it! I wanted to ask him myself if I could not find out from Sister Ortensia. Oh well, I may be able to find him if I head out now. I bow to Sister Ortensia once more and make my way out.

I start my search in downtown Shinto and continue searching until I see the sun setting. I wonder if I just wasted my entire day out of mere curiosity, I may have. Anyway, I should probably head home quickly. Or I'll be a sitting duck out here. I start walking home, and once I cross the bridge I slow down a bit. It's only about twenty more minutes to my house and-

"Hehehe..."

Huh? What was-

"Helloooooooo~! I was wondering if you'd notice me!"

A woman was standing on the bridge I had just crossed. She had purple hair as well as a green dress on, next to her was-

"A-Archer..."

The man in the red tunic floated in mid-air next to her, bow in hand. She laughed a bit more and covered her mouth with her hand. I could see her Command Seals clearly in the darkness, she must be Archer's Master.

"I thought I might find you, but without your Servant? Such a shame, I expected more from Caster's Master. Oh well, let me introduce myself before you die. My name is Akako Shizuni, I'm sure you know my shop already, Archer here had to chase you away."

She laughed again, this is really bad. I'm going to have to try and get her to leave, or-

"Master, let me end her life quickly. All this taunting is not honorable."

"Oh, fine. Go on and kill her."

He quickly pulls an arrow across the string of his bow and releases it. It flies strait for me, I need to do something! I block my face with my arms.

"Caster!"

I feel the Command Seals on my hands burning and a blinding light appear before me. I then hear the snap of an arrow breaking as I look up.

There he is, William Shakespeare, the Caster class Servant. A large shield is raised in order to cover us both, and he looks to me.

"Master, thou art a lady of many enemies. Perhaps thou should take me with you when next you travel out."

He turns his attention back to the fight and throws his book. It floats in front of him and opens up. I see Archer pulling a few arrows back on his bow as Caster holds a hand out. He clenches a fist and three blue orbs rise from the ground. They circle above Caster's head and soon form a triangle. The three orbs then form beams which connect them all together, and then another which makes them all meet in the middle.

Archer fires a volley of arrows towards us, and I crouch to the ground while covering my head. I'm going to die if Caster doesn't do something! Just at that time, I hear a strange sound I have yet to hear before, and odd humming noise. I look up and see a beam, coming from the point where the beams from the orbs meet. It traces along and destroys all the arrows quickly. Archer jumps into the air and fires even more, which Caster easily destroys.

Archer grits his teeth and pulls a large green arrow from his quiver. He pulls back the string and fires it. Caster's beam of course destroys it, but a large cloud of green gas surges forward and covers us. I can't breathe, what is this? Caster holds his breath and fires the beam directly at Archer, who has a hard time dodging it. He eventually leaps and fires more arrows at us which caster destroys with his beam.

Soon, the three orbs fade and the beam with it. Caster growls softly and flings off his cloak. He leaps forward and begins firing dozens of his black orbs, which explode on contact with the ground and Archer. I watch Archer get sent flying backwards, and Archer's Master rushes to him. She gives us an very angry look at screams.

"Archer! I command you to keep fighting!"

Archer's body jolted a bit, and he stood up. She must have just used one of her Command Spells, what a waste. Caster grins as he opens his book once more, his coat flapping from some sort of non existent wind as he flips the pages. Archer leaps up and fires his arrows relentlessly at Caster, who blocks them with his shield. As Caster looks through the book, I notice Archer fitting a large black arrow to the string.

"Caster! Look out!"

Caster looks up just in time to see his shield shatter and explode. He is sent flying backwards, book in hand, and tumbles across the asphalt. I help him up and give him some of my mana to help, he glares at Archer.

"Thou art a foe of which I have underestimated. I shall give you no quarter!"

Caster stretches his arms out and the book, now floating in front of him, flies through its pages in a blur. I see thousands of the white orbs appear around Caster, and he then lowers his arms. All the orbs which he had summoned flew forward toward Archer and his escape routes. He was hit by several of them and was tossed backwards. Archer quickly got up and closed his eyes. He then summoned a enormous golden arrow from out of nowhere and pulled it across his bow string. He aimed it carefully and snapped his eyes open.

"

Day Five

I showered longer than usual today, probably to help wake myself up. I was up well into the night studying everything we had in the house about the Command Seals, and could not find anything relating to how Sam made Assassin kill Lancer with a single strike. I gave up around three in the morning, and this is the result. I ate breakfast quickly and went back to the library to see if I missed anything. I'm hoping if I look through everything again I might get a hint at-

"Huh?"

My phone is ringing? This early? I pull my phone from my pocket and check to see who is calling. It's Sam. Of course, I flip it open as soon as I can.

"Yeah, Sam? What is it?"

"Ah, Tohsaka-san, good. I was just wondering you had any plans for the day. I'm going to be letting Assassin rest after the incident last night, and I trust you're letting Caster do the same?"

"Well, yeah. I guess I'm free today, why? Do you want to go searching for another Master without the Servants?"

"No no, that's too risky for the both of us. I simply think it would be nice to go an enjoy a common day. We could go visit Tsubaki at the Church."

"Hmm, well I don't really have anything else to do, and I do want to ask you some questions. Okay, sure. Come by my house in a little bit, okay?"

"Of course, but don't get your hopes up, I'm not taking you home with me."

W-what? Is he serious? Oh I have half a mind to throttle him when I see him! Okay okay, calm down, this is your chance to ask him about the Command Seals, Haruki. Don't blow it! I know he's just saying things like that because he wants to see me worked up. Alright, I better get ready.

I put on some casual clothing and tell mom and dad where I'm going. I go outside and wait. He doesn't take long at all and I see him after waiting only a minute or two.

"Hey, Tohsaka, good to see you. This is the... fourth... time I've seen you not in your school uniform?"

I nod and him and smile. I'm happy to see him in casual clothing. Between the black outfit he has for fighting Master's, and his school uniform, I almost never see him like this. Its kind of refreshing.

"I think that right, now let's go, its a nice day today."

Sam only nods at me and we begin our walk towards the Church. We get to the Shinto bridge fairly quickly, and I'm reminded of the events of last night. It would be a good idea to tell him, seeing as we're cooperating, and he may have more of an idea about who he was, seeing as he appears to have been preparing for this a lot longer than I have.

"Last night, when I was leaving, I saw a man up there."

I point to where I saw the man in the white coat from yesterday.

"He had Command Seals on his left hand. He was a Master. I'm sure he was watching our fight with Lancer."

Sam shrugs softly and starts to walk again, is he really not interested in something this important?

"Hmph, must have been pretty boring for him when we were pulled into the Reality Marble then."

I sigh softly and we continue our walk. After nearly an hour we arrive at Kotomine Church. My mom and dad told me that the last moderator of the Holy Grail war had his own Servant, and they had to fight him. I'm sure Sister Ortensia would not do anything like that. I enter the Church behind Sam and I see Sister Caren and Tsubaki as soon as I walk in. I look to who they are speaking with and-

No... No, no, no! It's him! The man from the bridge, the other Master, why is he here? I have to tell Sam right away... but if I tell him now he might hear us, I have to keep my calm. I can't really hear what he is saying to Sister Ortensia, but she remains expressionless like always.

After a while, the man in the white coat turns from Sister Ortensia and heads out. I can see him grinning at me from the corner of my eye as he walks past. When I hear the door shut behind me, I tug on Sam's shirt frantically.

"Sam! That was him! That was the man I saw watching us last night!"

He pondered this for a moment and nodded to me. Then he turned his attention back to Sister Ortensia.

"Excuse me, Sister Ortensia."

"Oh, hello there. Here to visit Tsubaki? Oh, and it's nice to see you again Haruki."

I smile at Sister Ortensia and bow my head to her as respectfully as I can. Apparently dad and Sister Ortensia had a bit of a thing during the False Grail war before Dad married Mom, but I was never told much about it. I'm guessing it's for the best.

"Likewise, Sister. Me and Sam came to visit our friend here now that she isn't forced to fight us."

"I see, so I'm guessing that means you two are cooperating?"

"That's about right, just for now, at least."

I saw Sam move over to talk with Tsubaki, so I took the liberty of asking sister Ortensia a few questions.

"Sister, who was that man just now?"

"Oh, him? He's an old apprentice of my Father, Katsurou Hacamachi. He's one of your many opponents."

"So he really is a Master. Do you know what Class of Servant he has?"

"I'm afraid not, I would tell you otherwise. I don't really like him all that much, truth be told."

"Alright, well I have a few other questions if you don't mind me asking."

"Of course, go right ahead."

I need to ask her about the Command Seals. From what I know of Sister Ortensia, she was the Master of two Servants, and very powerful one's at that. She might no more about that trick Sam used last night.

"Well, last night, Sam used a Command Seal on his Assassin, and I watched with my own eyes, Assassin killing Lancer in a single strike after it. I've never heard of anything like that before, have you?"

"A single strike? Was it a Noble Phantasm?"

"Not at all, it was a regular attack with his knife."

"That's very odd, I've never heard of anything like that before, I'm sorry."

I nodded and bowed to Sister Ortensia and looked to Tsubaki. She was alone again, and I did not see Sam anywhere. He must have left, damn it! I wanted to ask him myself if I could not find out from Sister Ortensia. Oh well, I may be able to find him if I head out now. I bow to Sister Ortensia once more and make my way out.

I start my search in downtown Shinto and continue searching until I see the sun setting. I wonder if I just wasted my entire day out of mere curiosity, I may have. Anyway, I should probably head home quickly. Or I'll be a sitting duck out here. I start walking home, and once I cross the bridge I slow down a bit. It's only about twenty more minutes to my house and-

"Hehehe..."

Huh? What was-

"Helloooooooo~! I was wondering if you'd notice me!"

A woman was standing on the bridge I had just crossed. She had purple hair as well as a green dress on, next to her was-

"A-Archer..."

The man in the red tunic floated in mid-air next to her, bow in hand. She laughed a bit more and covered her mouth with her hand. I could see her Command Seals clearly in the darkness, she must be Archer's Master.

"I thought I might find you, but without your Servant? Such a shame, I expected more from Caster's Master. Oh well, let me introduce myself before you die. My name is Akako Shizuni, I'm sure you know my shop already, Archer here had to chase you away."

She laughed again, this is really bad. I'm going to have to try and get her to leave, or-

"Master, let me end her life quickly. All this taunting is not honorable."

"Oh, fine. Go on and kill her."

He quickly pulls an arrow across the string of his bow and releases it. It flies strait for me, I need to do something! I block my face with my arms.

"Caster!"

I feel the Command Seals on my hands burning and a blinding light appear before me. I then hear the snap of an arrow breaking as I look up.

There he is, William Shakespeare, the Caster class Servant. A large shield is raised in order to cover us both, and he looks to me.

"Master, thou art a lady of many enemies. Perhaps thou should take me with you when next you travel out."

He turns his attention back to the fight and throws his book. It floats in front of him and opens up. I see Archer pulling a few arrows back on his bow as Caster holds a hand out. He clenches a fist and three blue orbs rise from the ground. They circle above Caster's head and soon form a triangle. The three orbs then form beams which connect them all together, and then another which makes them all meet in the middle.

Archer fires a volley of arrows towards us, and I crouch to the ground while covering my head. I'm going to die if Caster doesn't do something! Just at that time, I hear a strange sound I have yet to hear before, and odd humming noise. I look up and see a beam, coming from the point where the beams from the orbs meet. It traces along and destroys all the arrows quickly. Archer jumps into the air and fires even more, which Caster easily destroys.

Archer grits his teeth and pulls a large green arrow from his quiver. He pulls back the string and fires it. Caster's beam of course destroys it, but a large cloud of green gas surges forward and covers us. I can't breathe, what is this? Caster holds his breath and fires the beam directly at Archer, who has a hard time dodging it. He eventually leaps and fires more arrows at us which caster destroys with his beam.

Soon, the three orbs fade and the beam with it. Caster growls softly and flings off his cloak. He leaps forward and begins firing dozens of his black orbs, which explode on contact with the ground and Archer. I watch Archer get sent flying backwards, and Archer's Master rushes to him. She gives us an very angry look at screams.

"Archer! I command you to keep fighting!"

Archer's body jolted a bit, and he stood up. She must have just used one of her Command Spells, what a waste. Caster grins as he opens his book once more, his coat flapping from some sort of non existent wind as he flips the pages. Archer leaps up and fires his arrows relentlessly at Caster, who blocks them with his shield. As Caster looks through the book, I notice Archer fitting a large black arrow to the string.

"Caster! Look out!"

Caster looks up just in time to see his shield shatter and explode. He is sent flying backwards, book in hand, and tumbles across the asphalt. I help him up and give him some of my mana to help, he glares at Archer.

"Thou art a foe of which I have underestimated. I shall give you no quarter!"

Caster stretches his arms out and the book, now floating in front of him, flies through its pages in a blur. I see thousands of the white orbs appear around Caster, and he then lowers his arms. All the orbs which he had summoned flew forward toward Archer and his escape routes. He was hit by several of them and was tossed backwards. Archer quickly got up and closed his eyes. He then summoned a enormous golden arrow from out of nowhere and pulled it across his bow string. He aimed it carefully and snapped his eyes open.

"_Percusserit Solis!_"

The arrow flew toward us with a light so bright I could not look at it. Caster quickly put his shield up, but it was no use, the arrow broke right through and exploded with an enormous impact.

"Oww... w-what the..."

I feel dizzy, I need to get up quickly. Where's Caster? If I survived that then I guarantee he did. I look around and see Caster getting back to his feet. He opens his book again, despite the blood flowing from a gash on his cheek. He really is not going to give up this fight, is he? If he won't then neither will-

"Attaquer!"

What in the-? I turn to my side just in time to see two men riding a horse towards us. The dust being kicked up behind the horse, one would think it was a stampede instead of one animal. The men on the horse look completely different from one another. One is wearing a long blue coat and has short blonde hair. The other is wearing brown leather armor, has decently lengthed black hair, and is holding a sword.

No doubt, from the magical energy I feel coming from them, that is surely another Servant and Master. I notice the man in the blue coat, no doubt the Master, stand on the back of the horse and leap towards Archer's Master. He points his finger and begins to fire at her. She responds with her own shield as Archer goes to intercept the Servant, probably a Rider class Servant. The two clash as the Master have their magical duel.

"Akako! What in God's name have you done to yourself?"

"Shut up, old man! I won't let you lie to me any longer!"

The Master's were fighting more ferociously than their Servants, who seemed to be perfectly content with their battle. Rider chased down Archer every time he leaped away, and swatted away his arrows like nothing. This is our chance to run! I look to Caster and he nods before I say a word. He grabs me carefully and leaps in the direction of my house. After only a few minutes, I return safely home.

I send Caster back to the basement so he can regain his mana, and I go to bed quickly. I am completely exhausted from everything that's happened, and right now all I want is some sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

**Day Six**

The actors take their places on the stage as the performance begins. The scene starts with a few man walking about a square, where a fight quickly erupts. The battle goes until the Prince interrupts, declaring that if another fight happens, the punishment would be death.

The man watches from his balcony seat as the performance he wrote unfolds on the stage. Despite knowing exactly what will happen, he laughs where it amuses him and tenses up when the performers get in dire situations.

He tents his fingers softly as the audience claps. The curtain closes and the first act ends. He smirks to himself contently and stands to make his way from the theater. The people love his work, and he will have great success and fortune as a result.

...

...

...

I wake up with a headache. What did I just see? Was that one of Caster's memories? No doubt, it had to have been. I work my way from the bed and get dressed, I go down to the basement first thing to talk with Caster. Today, since we can't do much of anything, I'll be doing research on Command Seals and how Sam managed to do what he did to Lancer. I still bothers me that he manipulated the Command Spells to such an extent.

"Master, I hath been doing my own research while thou rested. I did not discover anything of much note at first, but as I work the fruits of my labor grew."

"What do you mean?"

Caster moved to a table in the basement and grabbed a few books. He walked over and handed them to me.

"I suggest thou read these tomes, Master. The answer you seek may lie within them."

He smiled at me and went back to the exact spot from which I summoned him. I went back upstairs with the books he gave me and went to my room. I set them on the bed and laid down, I grabbed one and opened it up. Lets see here...

I read through the book, paying close attention to every last detail it holds. I read about the Command Seals, and most of this I already know. Halfway through the book however, I come across something that interests me.

"What the... A specific order increases the power of a Command Seal. This combined with sheer power as a Magus and the sacrifice of a Magic Circuit can make the Command Seal create miracles that normally would be impossible."

Sacrificing a Magic Circuit? I can give up one of the Magic Circuits I have in order to increase the power of my Command Spells? Is that what he did? I open the next book, and only a few chapters in I find the same result. It also has instruction on how to do it. In basic terms, I need to visualize a Magic Circuit and exactly what I want my Servant to do when I use the Command Spell.

"That's... amazing."

More than amazing, with the simple loss of a single Magic Circuit I can create miracles more powerful than your average Command Spell. How on Earth did Sam learn about this? Has he really been preparing for the Holy Grail War long enough to know so much about all this?

I close the books and head back to the basement to talk to Caster. He smiles as I return and motions to a chair.

"Master, I take it thou hath found thy answer?"

"Indeed, Caster. I can give up one of the hundreds of Magic Circuits I have to increase the power of the my Command Spells almost three fold."

"Interesting, I didn't look much into it myself but I did see something like that, yes."

I speak with Caster about the possibilities of the Command Seals and soon the course of the conversation takes a change of direction.

"Caster... I saw some of your memories last night."

"Oh? How were they?"

"I saw you watching the first production of what I think was Romeo and Juliet, you looked very satisfied with yourself."

"Ahh, yes. The applause was music to my ears."

"It had me thinking about something."

"Oh?"

"You are a Heroic Spirit, but you never really did anything heroic in your life. So you must desire something strongly form the Grail. What do you want from it?"

"Very simple, I wish for another chance at life so I can continue to write masterpieces for the world to enjoy."

Really, that's it? Well I can just deny him his wish when I destroy the Holy Grail and that will be that. Odd, I thought the great William Shakespeare would want something more from the Grail than a new life.

I hear the doorbell ring and I quickly run to answer it. As I make my way there I notice through the windows that its gotten dark outside. I open the door and-

"Assassin!"

I jump back as I see Assassin standing in front of the door. I grab some gems in my pocket and get ready to call for Caster. I'm not going to let this guy-

"I need you assistance, friend of my Master. He is wounded badly, and I cannot treat wounds."

"Wha-?"

I only just notice now, but Sam is laying lifelessly in his arms. He is wearing the black battle garb he seems so fond of, but its ripped above the waist and is covered in blood.

"Oh God... this is bad. We need to treat him as soon as we can."

"I understand, i'll follow your instructions until the Master is safe."

"How did this happen? What happened to him?"

"We were on operation to eliminate Saber's Master, one Daichi Matou, and Saber escaped from me to defend his Master from my own."

Sam tried to take on Saber and his Master alone? With an Assassin no less? I really don't understand what he was trying to do beside get himself killed.

"We need to get him to his house so he can regain mana, first. I'll grab some medical tools, you take him back home and lay him down. I'll be there as soon as I can!"

Assassin only nods at me and leaps off, Sam in his arms, towards their base. I run to the bathroom and grab the emergency first aid kit and start running up the road to Sam's house. I arrive in record time and I see the door was left open for me. I run quickly to the bedroom and find Assassin in the corner of the room, watching of Sam as he lays on the bed.

I move over with the medical bag in my hands as Assassin watches me, no doubt making sure I don't harm his Master. I take off the coat and shirt he was wearing and get to work. I get out some disinfectant and start to treat his wounds. I see him strain a bit from the pain as I apply it, and Assassin's gaze sharpens on me.

"Don't worry, its going to hurt him a bit but it will help him in the long run."

Assassin nods softly at me and starts to relax visibly. I take that as my cue to get back to work on Sam. I start to wipe the blood from his skin and then dry it off as much as possible. I get out the gauze from the medical bag and begin wrapping it around his would. He has a very nasty gash running through his side. It hit a few organs and if I don't use restoration magic after this there is a good chance he is going to die.

I take one of the gems from my pocket and hold it in my hand over his wound.

"Heile, Werden geheilten"

I drop the gem on the floor and go to the corner of the room with Assassin.

"He should be fine now, that's really all I can do for him."

Assassin bows his head to me and nods.

"I thank you for your assistance, friend of the Master. You are welcome to stay until he wakes if you wish, as a token of appreciation."

"I'll take you up on that, mind if I borrow a book to read while I wait?"

"You are more than welcome to."

I grab a random book from the shelf and start reading it. I'm fairly uninterested in it but it passes the time well enough. After a while, when light begins to fill the room, I see Sam starting to wake up. I look up from the book and smile softly.

"Ah- Ahh!"

He just tried to lean up. Idiot. That wound was bad, he's going to be hurting for a good bit of time.

"Master, I advise you not move too much, you're wound is very bad."

"He's right, you'd better be thankful for your Servant too, he took you right to me and told me everything. He brought me here with you and we both got you patched up."

"T-Toh... saka?"

He must be surprised, he probably didn't expect to see me here when he woke up. Truth be told I'm not really sure why I'm here either. I just felt like I needed to be here when he woke up. Why on Earth did I think of something like that?

"Tohsaka... you honestly came here... without a Servant... to help me?"

He's laughing at me. Damn it, no matter what I do he's always going to be Sam. He's always going to laugh, even if it hurts.

"Don't laugh about it! I nearly killed Assassin until I noticed how injured you were. Luckily I know enough magic to heal pretty well, it may hurt for a bit, but you'll be back on your feet really quick if you get some rest."

"I see... that's good... Thank you... Tohsaka."

Well at least he is polite. I honestly was not expecting a thank you until he was completely healed.

"Don't mention it, I'm sure you would have done the same for me."

Sam slowly drifts back to sleep and I look to Assassin.

"Keep a good eye on him, i'll be heading home now."

"Of course, Allah watch over you, friend of the Master."

I go over to the bed to see Sam sleeping one last time before I leave. He looks so peaceful when he sleeps. I down stairs and outside, I walk down the street back home. Once home, I tell Caster everything that happened.

"I'm amazed you took the risk brought apon by going to the base of another Master without the guard of a Servant."

"I trust Sam, Caster. He would never have his Servant attack me if I'm trying to help him."

"You seem to forget just how truly terrible this war is on people, Master. Thy faith is to put into no other but thy self, until the Grail is claimed."

"Just... go back to getting Mana, Caster."

I sigh and head back up from the basement. I move to the living room and go to my chair to rest a bit.

The doorbell? Who could it be at this time of night? If I'm right, Sam forced himself out of bed to thank me again. That idiot probably didn't even let Assassin carry him here and walked on his-

"Bonjour."

My heart stopped for a moment as I saw who awaited me on the other side of the door. Its that man! Its him, I saw him last night! Rider's Master! How the hell did he find me?

"Y-you... you're... How did you find me?"

"I'm quite familiar with the prestige of the Tohsaka family, Madam. I was wondering if we could have a nice chat, Master to Master."

He wants to talk? It might be a trap, but he might have a idea or deal to make with me. I guess it won't hurt if I let him in to talk for a bit. I have Caster in the basement if he tries anything, so I'm safe for the most part.

"Why should I trust another Master? You could easily be planning to kill me."

"I left my Servant back at my dwellings as a sign of good will. I simply wish to speak with you about something important to us both."

"Alright... lets talk in the living room."

I don't sense Rider anywhere near by, so he might be safe. We both go to the living room and sit down, he looks to me and starts speaking the moment we are both ready.

"I do think it was you who saw the battle between me and my old apprentice last night, correct?"

Old apprentice? So that's how they knew each other. It makes perfect sense, actually. It explains why neither of them tried to finish me off, there must be serious tension between the two of them.

"Y-yeah... what about it."

"Well, after you fled, we were interrupted by the arrival of Berserker. He managed to easily overpower both my Servant and my apprentices, which is why I am here now."

Berserker? I have yet to see which Berserker was summoned into this War. If he has the power to easily defeat two Servants then he must be a serious threat.

"You want... an Alliance with me?"

"Exactly, I'll be needing assistance in defeating a opponent like Berserker and his Master."

Another Master helping me would be great, but I need to know what Sam thinks about this kind of thing. He may be against a three way Alliance.

"I need to discuss it with somebody else first. I'm already cooperating with a Master, and I'm sure he'll want input on this."

"Of course, well, I shall be around town."

He leans over and pulls a small pad and pen from his coat. He writes down something quickly and slides it over to me.

"That is the number for my apartment, call me when you are your friend reach your decision."

He stands up and moves to the hallway. He gives me one last look before smiling and making his way out the door. I watch him as he walks down the street and into the distance.

My head really hurts at this point. Too much is happening today for me to focus. I need to take a bath a go to bed. I head upstairs and take a nice hot bath. Afterwards I go back to my room. The books Caster gave me catch my attention as I get into bed, and I find myself reading them well into the night before I finally go to sleep.

...

...

...

The man in my dreams sits in a chair in candle lit room. He is sitting at a desk and writing hastily on a piece of parchment. The title: "Julius Caesar."

The man continues to write, dipping his quill in ink every now and then. Before long he had gone through several pieces of parchment. He kept writing until he was satisfied and then reread everything. We ripped up a few pieces of the parchment angrily and went back to his work.

He did this many times, over time, his hand grew weary and his eyes began to flicker. After a short while, he set his head on his desk for only a moment and drifted to sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

_Fate/Generation - Chapter 11_

_**Day Seven**_

A bed. Yes, this is certainly a bed. If I remember correctly, this is the same bed I fell asleep on after I cheated death. Only one way to find out. I open my eyes slowly, and the blinding light from the window floods into my vision without hesitation. After a moment of getting use to it, I look around.

"Hey, look at that... I was right."

I look to the corner of the room. Standing there, just as he did before I slept, awaits my trusted Servant, Assassin. I notice a small plastic container in his hands as he approaches me.

"Are you awake, Master?"

"Yeah... what is that there, Assassin?"

I pointed at the container in his hands. He moved close to the bed and showed it to me as I sat up slowly. I looked inside and-

"...are those...?"

I looked to Assassin for an answer, and he nodded as he set the container on the bed next to me and slowly went back to the corner of the room he seems to favor so much.

"Yes, Master. Those are the projectiles you used against Saber's Master. I know you will not be at full mana if you have left out duplications, so I went to collect them for you when you slept."

I nodded slowly. Assassin really is a very smart Servant. He went to collect the bullets while I was sleeping so I could be at full mana when I woke. I'm not sure if it was out of kindness or simply so his Master would be stronger, probably the latter, but I'm thankful. I reached my hand into the container and pulled out one of the dented, magic-enhanced bullets and looked at it.

"Damn, I was sure I would be able to break through his shield fast enough with these things. These are special bullets too... I guess the Holy Grail War is going to be harder than I thought."

I took a handful of bullets and broke them down back into mana. It took me a few minutes to do it for all of them, and another few minutes to do the same for the clips holding them. I felt a bit better after I had all my mana back and got out of bed. I saw the blood-stained bandages on my side and smiled grimly.

"Well, I'm one lucky guy. Assassin, what did Tohsaka do after she finished treating my wounds?"

"I invited her to stay at your residence as payment for her assistance. She read a few passages from a book from your shelf and then went back to her dwelling."

So, in short, Assassin had his eye on her the entire time. That's good. I slowly moved to the dresser and put on a fresh black shirt to hide the bloody bandages and moved my body a bit.

"Ugh... still hurts to bend over, but I should be good for now."

I looked to Assassin, who was watching my every move from his corner, as an idea went into my head. I was injured, which put me at a disadvantage. I knew I needed the ace I've been keeping up my sleeve to make up for my wounds until I've healed completely, so now would be a perfect time to put that into action. I smiled at Assassin as I put on a new black coat. It's a good thing I have more than one of these.

"Assassin, we're heading out for a bit. Dematerialize and stay close. I don't want another accident."

"Of course, Master. Where will we be going?"

I looked to Assassin as he got ready to leave with me. Knowing where we were going, and what we would do, I could not help but grin a bit.

"Kotomine Church."

Assassin nodded and dematerialized before my eyes. I straightened my clothes a bit and made my way outside. It was a bright and beautiful day outside, and the sun was high in the sky. I was thankful for being able to walk with mostly no problems as I made my way over to Shinto.

As I approached the Shinto Bridge, I saw a small construction team doing some work on a very bad mess. I'm more than sure that some Servants must have been fighting out here while I was sleeping, or while I was busy dealing with Daichi. I did my best to analyze what I could in the quick pass I made, and then made my way across the bridge.

"Master."

I heard Assassin's voice in my head as we finished crossing the bridge.

"Yes?"

"From what I could gather of the battle zone on the other side of this bridge, more than two Servant's were involved in the fighting. And from the amount of damage, I am more than sure Berserker was part of it."

Berserker, huh? I know nothing about Berserker or his Master, so it would do well to investigate them.

"Interesting. We'll look into that later, lets keep going."

"Of course, Master."

I continued to make my way toward the Church on the Hill. I passed through the shopping center of Shinto as I made my way there, mostly to see if anything struck my interest. I had to have my focus brought back to reaching the Church more than once by Assassin. When in really gets down to it, I am a very easily distracted Magus.

Eventually I reached the Church, and I prepared myself for the task at hand. I opened the doors with some force, hoping to make an intimidating entrance, and made my way to the Alter. I saw Sister Ortensia praying at the alter, and Tsubaki sitting on one of the pew's, checking her cell phone. Naturally, Tsubaki looked from her cell phone to see me and smiled a bit.

"Hey! Sam, what are you doing here? Don't tell me you lost your Servant already!"

That is a question she would ask me. I laughed softly and shook my head as she approached me.

"Of course not, don't think I'm going to lose that easily. I may have drawn from the Assassin class, but I still am more than able to handle that. I'm sure your Lancer would agree with me."

Tsubaki laughed softly for a moment before sighing and pouting cutely.

"Yeah, I can't believe I was the first to lose too! I even managed to get one of the knight classes. That's just sad."

The main reason I liked Tsubaki was because she was able to make jokes about things I would have thrown a rampaging fit about. She had a personality like that, which came in very handy with a person like me. I made idle small talk with her until Sister Ortensia was finished with her praying.

"Good afternoon, Mister Parker. Do you need something?"

I looked to Sister Ortensia as she addressed me. I smiled softly and nodded to her, then began to walk towards the door to the church courtyard. She followed me, knowing full well what I was here to speak about was a private matter. After we reached the courtyard I turned around and smiled softly at her.

"Well, Sister Ortensia, I'm sure you know just as well as I do that you owe my family a great deal."

Sister Ortensia sighed softly and nodded to me. I was never given all the details, but my father told me that I could manipulate Sister Ortensia to a certain extent if I mentioned the debt she owed my family. As much as it piqued my interest, I never pursued the subject further than my father told me.

"Well, I've come to collect on that."

"I see, what is it you want from me then?"

I smiled and pulled the glove from my right hand. I rolled up the sleeve on my coat and showed my two remaining Command Seals to her.

"As the moderator of this Grail War, you have the left over Command Seals from the last war, as well as your own from the false Grail War several years ago."

Sister Ortensia blinked at me a moment, then nodded her head as she rolled up the sleeve of her Church robes. As expected, I saw over a dozen Command Seals of various shapes and sized trailing all the way up her right arm. I smirked and nodded to her.

"How many do you need, exactly?"

"I think four will do for now. I can always come back for more if I need them."

Sister Ortensia sighed again and reached her hand out to mine. I smiled in delight as I felt her transfer her Command Seals over to me, even if it did hurt a bit. The transfer was complete before I knew it. I saw that my used Command Seal had been restored, and I had three new ones on my wrist and the start of my arm. I smiled happily and nodded to Sister Ortensia.

"Thank you very much, Sister. I shall come back to you if I require anything else."

Sister Ortensia simply rolled down her sleeve and went to her chambers in the back of the Church. I went back to the chapel and was greeted by an ever curious Tsubaki, who was idly waiting on one of the pews for me.

"So what did you do in there? You weren't trying to put the moves on Sister Caren, were you?"

"Heh, of course not. Even if you remove the distance in age, she is simply not my type."

I laughed a bit with Tsubaki and made small talk with her as I walked towards the exit. We talked about how neither of us had been to school in a while, and how we would probably be scolded by the teachers when the Grail War was all over. Thinking about that, I do wonder exactly what I'll do when I get the Grail. I've been preparing for this war so much I never really made any plans on what to do after it.

I thought about that for a moment as I stood at the door of the chapel. Tsubaki simply smiled at me as I lost myself in thought. What will I do after the Grail War is over? I never really put any thought into that. Once I give the Grail to my father, I'm free. I'll have all the money I could ever need and I could do anything I want or be whatever I want to be. Thinking about that, makes me wonder if I've been missing out on something important.

I look to Tsubaki again and smiled softly. She, of course, smiled back and waved her hands in my face.

"So what were you thinking about?"

"I was just trying to figure out what exactly I'll do after the Grail War. I never really thought about it that much."

Its true. I've only ever thought about it when I've had absolutely nothing to do, which was extremely rare. I think that I need to be ready for my life after the Grail War. So I'd be nice to have somebody waiting for me to help me with my new life. That being said...

"Hey Tsubaki."

"Hmm?"

I gave the most confident smile I could and looked right at her.

"How about after I win the Grail, I take you out for a date?"

Tsubaki looked at me for a moment, obviously confused and puffed out her cheeks, looks like I broke Tsubaki. She started to stammer a bit as she tried to form words. It was cute to see her act like this.

"Wa- ...But I-... Wait a minute! I... What?! I mean... S-sure... Yeah, that sounds great!"

I smiled and nodded to her.

"Well then, I'll see you when I have the Grail then."

I walked out the doors of the chapel and began to make my way home. I felt a bit happier now, and maybe more confident. I had the rest of the Grail War planned out, and now I had somebody waiting for me when it was all over, probably. I made my way over Shinto bridge and smiled softly as I let my imagination run wild for a little bit.

I saw myself and Tsubaki walking around Shinto, talking and joking about as we use to. I walked with her to the shopping district as she hurriedly went from one store to the next. We ate our lunch together and simply had a wonderful time.

I noticed I was nearly home when I snapped back from my little world in my mind. I looked up at the hill my house was on and saw a familiar figure waiting for me near my house. I stopped in my tracks and lowered my head.

"Assassin, is that who I think it is?"

"That is indeed Haruki Tohsaka awaiting you. I also sense the presence of Caster by her as well."

So Tohsaka finally came to fight me? Maybe she realized that it would be easiest to attack me now that I'm wounded and came to finish me off before the wounds I have heal up completely. I slowly began to make my way up the hill once more, and Tohsaka began to walk towards me as well.

At a certain point she waved her hand at me. Maybe she was not here to fight after all. I suppose it would make more sense if she came to talk about something, and just brought Caster as insurance, but I'll stay on my guard all the same. At last I came face to face with Tohsaka, who gave me a friendly smile. I made sure my glove was secure on my hand so I would not reveal the additional Command Seals I had.

"Hey Sam. I was wondering where you went. You have time to talk?"

"If its about the Grail Wars then I always have time."

Tohsaka nodded at me.

"Alright then, lets go inside and talk. And would you be so kind as to leave your Servant outside? I'm not exactly thrilled with having something that can kill me easily in my house."

Tohsaka sighed softly and nodded. We then both entered the house and made our way to the living room. She took a seat across from me after I took mine and we looked at each other a moment before she finally spoke.

"Last night I had a bit of a talk with Rider's Master."

"Rider's Master? How on Earth did you manage that?"

This is getting interesting. I did not expect her to contact any other Masters outside of me. I better do my best to make sure I don't fall out of her favor.

"He wanted to join our alliance until we defeat Berserker's Master. Seeing as neither of us have met Berserker, I thought it was a good idea. I wanted to know what you think."

Allowing another Master into out Alliance? That would mean I have one less Master to worry about, but it also means I could not attack him either. I suppose the best choice would be to allow him in to help beat Berserker, and possibly Saber, and then betray him while he is weak.

"Hmm... I don't see any harm in it."

I nodded to her and she smiled and nodded back.

"Alright then, I'll give him a call. I wrote down his information for you. Here..."

She slid a piece of paper over the end table to me. I took a quick look at it and-

"-Eh?! Anton Honoré?"

Amazing. The Master I had run into on accident a few days ago at the park was the one who contacted Tohsaka? Maybe he was trying to use her as a means to get closer to me... No no, I'm being paranoid about it. As long as I wear my disguise when ever I'm outside the house, I'll be fine.

"Do you know him?"

Tohsaka tilted her head and looked at me curiously.

"Yeah... I ran into him at the park a while ago. He scared me half to death. I didn't have Assassin with me at the time... you said he's Rider's Master?"

"Yeah, I saw him with Rider, but I couldn't quite figure out what Epic Spirit he summoned."

"I see... Well, we'll stick with him for now. I need to rest."

I got up from the chair, as did Tohsaka. We exchanged bows and I headed towards the stairs.

"Assassin, see her out, please."

Assassin materialized behind me and walked Tohsaka to the door in my place. As she left, my head began badly. I could feel a familiar presence near me, despite knowing he could never be here. My vision blurred a bit and I stumbled my way up stairs. I hurried to my room and laid in bed as the headache continued. The presence had yet to go away, and I was uncomfortable feeling it after all these months. Damn this hurts.

My memory of the Grail War, ended there.


	12. Chapter 12

Fate/Generation - Chapter 12

_**Day Seven**_

I woke from my rest and was greeted by Caster's voice first thing.

"We should begin speaking with thy ally in order to seal the pact with Rider's Master."

"Yeah, I know. Let me get ready."

I crawled out of bed and got dressed in some casual clothes. I went to the living room, talked with mom and dad a little, and got my shoes on. Caster, hiding in spirit form, walked along side me as we moved down the hill towards Sam's house. Before long we reached the main gate. I moved to press the button on the gate intercom and-

"Master, I do not detect either Assassin's nor his Master in this dwelling. Perhaps they hath gone out for something."

"You may be right... let's go back home."

I walked home the same way I came. On the way, I decided to make a detour to one of the parks on this side of town. I was finally able to enjoy the refreshing atmosphere and the fresh air of the outside for once since the start of these Grail Wars. I looked around until something caught my eye. That's... who I think it is, right?

"C-Caster..."

"Yes, Master?"

"I think ... I think I see Archer's Master."

No doubt, the purple haired woman with a brown autumn coat and a green skirt I see is the same woman who attacked me and Caster before. The last thing I want is to get in a battle with her here, so I slowly begin to slide off the bench and make my way from the park. From what I can tell, she did not notice me. As I exited the park, I began to walk down the street towards the Shinto Bridge. I have no real destination in mind, but I want to get away from Archer's Master.

As I approach the bridge, the crowd seems to grow smaller and smaller. Eventually I share the street with only another three or four people. I look forward, two girls are having a conversation on the sidewalk across the road, one man is checking his watch at the bus stop, and another man in a brown winter coat and hat is walking towards us. As we pass the man in brown, I feel him grab my arm. I quickly throw him a glare and-

-My heart sank and I could feel the blood leave my face as I looked into the eyes of the man. I could clearly see who it was. Archer, dressed in normal clothing, was staring at me intently. Caster materialized behind me, I guess nobody had noticed as they were caught up in their own thing. Archer raised one hand to Caster.

"I'm not here to fight, I'm here to warn. My Master told me to find you after she saw you in the park. Now, I may not like my Master very much, but I've sworn loyalty to her. I advise you be a bit more cautious from now on, I won't be warning you again."

Archer let go of my arm and swiftly walked past us. Caster, after his presence faded enough, dematerialized. I stayed still for a moment and thought over Archer's words. He had chosen to warn me instead of attack me. Does that make him a good person? No. I can't think that way. He is my enemy. A true and powerful enemy. I confirm this over and over in my head, and cross the bridge over to Shinto.

I began roaming the streets of Shinto looking for Sam. I spent several hours looking, and eventually decided he must have returned to his home. I walked back with Caster and found the house empty again. I sighed, but I heard Caster's voice in my head.

"Master, I sense Assassin approaching, with his Master as well."

I looked and could faintly see Sam approaching the house. I smiled and waited for him. At some point he stopped, and then resumed walking again as he played with his gloves. I walked to meet him and waved at him. I smiled at him as we got closer, and he nodded to me.

"Hey Sam. I was wondering where you went. You have time to talk?"

"If its about the Grail Wars then I always have time."

I nodded to him, and he nodded in return."

"Alright then, lets go inside and talk. And would you be so kind as to leave your Servant outside? I'm not exactly thrilled with having something that can kill me easily in my house."

I sighed softly and nodded. We then both entered the house and made our way to the living room. Sam took his seat, and I took mine across from him.

"Last night I had a bit of a talk with Rider's Master."

"Rider's Master? How on Earth did you manage that?"

I explained to Sam the circumstances of which Rider's Master visited me, and then looked to him again.

"He wanted to join our alliance until we defeat Berserker's Master. Seeing as neither of us have met Berserker, I thought it was a good idea. I wanted to know what you think."

Sam looked puzzled for a moment, then looked to me and nodded.

"I don't see any harm in it."

I nodded to her and she smiled and nodded back.

"Alright then, I'll give him a call. I wrote down his information for you. Here..."

I slid the piece of paper Rider's Master gave to me over the table to Sam. He took it and his face lost some color.

"-Eh?! Anton Honoré?"

Sam rubbed his eyes a bit and looked at me oddly.

"Do you know him?"

I tilted my head at him in curiosity. Maybe the two of them are old friends or something. Though with the difference in age it's probably unlikely.

"Yeah... I ran into him at the park a while ago. He scared me half to death. I didn't have Assassin with me at the time... you said he's Rider's Master?"

"Yeah, I saw him with Rider, but I couldn't quite figure out what Epic Spirit he summoned."

"I see... Well, we'll stick with him for now. I need to rest."

I got up from the chair and exchanged bows with Sam.

"Assassin, see her out, please."

Assassin materialized behind Sam and walked me to the door. I thanked him as I left, and Caster materialized with me as I walked out. We began our nightly patrol of the city, crossing Shinto Bridge and through the shopping district with no trouble. I continued walking and eventually ended up at the outskirts of town, near a forest. From what my dad told me, deep within the forest lies an old abandoned castle that use to belong to my father's younger Sister, and the last Master from the Einzbern family to ever participate in a Grail War. She died during the Grail Wars, and was buried in front of her castle by Mom and Dad.

I looked into the forest and decided to follow the path. I walked for a long time through the dark forest, not really knowing why. After about an hour, I saw something to my right. It was not a castle, but instead a rather impressive looking camp site. A very expensive looking tent, several trapped animals on a wire, and a still burning fire adorned the camp site. I stepped in to examine further and-

"Whelp."

I was blasted back by a powerful magic as I heard laughing. Caster materialized behind me and covered us with a shield as another blast of magic hit. I looked up to find the source and saw something I was not expecting at all. The man with the white coat and cross necklace was standing in the camp site. He cracked his knuckles and looked over Caster intently.

"I see... a very interesting Servant you have, young Miss Tohsaka."

The way he said my name chilled my very core. I backed up a bit as Caster stepped in front of me and the man in white, Katsurou Hacamachi as Sister Ortensia named him, grinned.

"I suppose I shall let you see my own Servant then. Just to make things more interesting."

Katsurou raised his hand into the air and snapped his fingers loudly. The sound echoed through the dark forest and Katsurou's yell broke the peaceful quiet darkness.

"Berserker!"

The ground rumbled slightly as a large black summoning circle appeared between Caster and Katsurou. From it, a large behemoth of a man materialized in front of me. His skin was slightly tanned and he wore iron armor with a layer of this fur underneath. On his head was a iron helmet that covered down to his chin, with two horns coming out of the top and curling. In his hands was a large battered axe that had seen better days. I began crawling backwards until I could get back on my feet. Caster backed up as well.

"B-Berserker?!"

Caster appeared as frightened as I was. Berserker looked at us with eyes the shade of blood. He stood about two meters taller than Caster, and I could feel the pure murderous intent coming from him. This thing was not anything I would call a human.

"Berserker, get these rat's out of my forest."

A ear splitting roar rushed past me. I covered my ears as Caster grabbed me and began fleeing the forest as fast as he could. I looked as Caster carried me over his shoulder and saw Berserker rushing forward towards us, chopping down tree's with a single swing of his axe. His eyes glowed a bright red and nothing but destruction was left in his path.

"Trace, on!"

I projected some powerful gems into my hand, costing a lot of my mana, and threw them all at Berserker as he charged at us. The gems exploded on contact with Berserker and an enormous smoke cloud kicked up. Before I could sigh in relief, Berserker charged through the smoke cloud as if nothing had hit him at all.

"What is that thing?!"

"That would be Berserker, my Master. By all accounts, he truly doth be the most powerful Servant."

Caster educated me as he fled from the forest at full speed. I watched Berserker continue his charge toward us, swinging his sword, with a sense of powerlessness. How on earth could I possibly defeat something like that? Even when backed by Assassin and Rider I still don't think it would be enough. Sam's secret trick might not even be enough.

I looked behind me and say the end of the forest. Caster made one final leap out of the forest, and Berserker stopped in his tracks just before he stepped out of the forest. After staring at me and Caster for a long time, he turned and headed back into the forest. I let out a sigh of relief and looked to Caster.

"How the hell are we going to beat that thing?!"

"I don't know, Master... I really don't have any ideas."

We both sighed loudly and looked out over the bright lights of Shinto in the quiet darkness. We sigh loudly and begin walking home. Caster looks to me and shakes his head.

"We truly are in a tight spot with that Berserker. His Master did not even seem to suffer from mana drain when he Commanded him."

"I know... but I know we're gunna get through this!"

I stomp my foot on the ground and look at Caster with the best smile I could muster. Caster looked at me bewildered a moment, and tilted his head to me. He scratched the back of his head and looked like he was trying to figure out how to word something.

"How doth you know that for certain, Master?"

"I know it because we're the people doing what's right! I know your plays didn't all have happy endings, but I want to believe we live in a world where people who do the right thing always come out on top!"

Caster looked at me sadly and shook his head, but then smiled.

"In a perfect world..."

He muttered to himself as we walked home. When we began seeing people ahead, Caster Dematerialized until we arrived home. Dad was sitting in a chair reading in the living room when I got home, and he smiled at me.

"Welcome home Haruki, what were you up to?"

"Me and Caster... we ran into Berserker and his Master?"

My father's eyes widened and he quickly checked me for injury. After he treated me for the few cuts I had he sat down with me and started to explain some things to me.

"So, about Berserker, you need to know a few things. Berserker, in most cases, is the most powerful Servant in the Grail Wars. When I was in the Grail Wars with your mother, both her Servant and mine together could not defeat Berserker..."

Father explained some things to me about the Berserker class Servant long into the night. We went to bed around three in the morning and I found myself unable to sleep, my mind filled with thought of that monster Berserker. Finally, I reached into the end table next to my bed and pulled out familiar bit of paper. I picked up my phone and dialed the number on it.

"Hello? You're Anton, right?"


	13. Chapter 13

_Fate/Generation - Chapter 13_

_**Day Eight**_

I made my way quickly from my house to Sam's as soon as I was dressed. Once I got there, I rang the doorbell, and Assassin greeted me as usual. He wordlessly led me inside and seated me in the living room. After waiting a few minutes, Sam came down the stairs, sighing loudly. Caster had come inside the house with me, but Sam did not seem to care for some reason. He looked like he had bags under his eyes.

He sat down opposite of me and rubbed his eyes softly. He then looked to me, and I took that as my cue to begin speaking.

"You look tired."

Sam sighed at me and nodded.

"I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Right, well, anyway. I went ahead and made the deal with Rider's Master. We're going to need him help against the more powerful Servants, like Saber and Berserker. I've seen Berserker's power with my own eyes, and I can tell you right away that we can't beat him alone."

Sam looked at me for a bit, scratched his chin, and nodded.

"Alright, we'll do it. Where are we meeting him?"

"The edge of the forest, in an hour. I told him where Berserker's Master is staying, so we're going to attack him together."

Sam stood up from his chair and nodded to me again. He started walking back upstairs as he spoke to me with his back turned.

"I'll meet you both there then."

Assassin materialized in the room as I watched Sam go back upstairs, and he escorted me out of the house. I trust Sam enough to show up and help us fight Berserker, so I should have nothing to worry about. I walked around for most of the day, passing the time by looking at things in stores on my way to the rally point. A little past the agreed on time, I arrived at the border to the forest. As expected, Anton and Sam were there. I could see Rider and Assassin.

I took this time to really look over Rider. His hair was jet black and fell down to below his neck. He had a mustache and was fairly well built. He was wearing a leather tunic, with some chain mail on the arms and chest. He had a weird looking sword and a round shield, and was riding a horse. I could also see a bow and quiver on his back. He seemed like a very well prepared Servant.

Anton, his Master, was looking over Sam and his Servant when I arrived. Thankfully, neither of them attacked each other. Once they both took notice of me, Caster materialized and we began to discuss the plan. Anton was the first to speak.

"Now, from what Lady Tohsaka has told me, our enemy is in this forest. He has the Servant Berserker under his control, and appears to be powerful enough not to suffer from his mana being drained while he controls him. I also managed to figure out his Epic spirits identity. It's not going to be easy, he Summoned the Epic Spirit Harald Fairhair, the Viking King of Berserker's. Knowing this, I think our best option is killing him if we can. Of course, Berserker will not let us past him so easily."

"I think my Assassin might be able to take care of the Master, could Rider and Caster hold their own against Berserker?"

"I'm sure we can. I know Caster, and he won't go down easy. Especially with a combat type Servant helping him."

"Agreed, as long as Caster supports me, I'll be fine."

All eyes fell on Rider as he spoke. He looked to all of us and smiled, before pulling the reigns on his horse.

"Now shall we go? I think we should use the time we have to talk to fight."

Nodding, Anton hopped on the horse with Rider. Assassin dematerialized and dashed into the woods. Me, Sam, and Caster began our journey into the woods, Anton and Rider leading the way. It was not long before we heard the sounds of fighting ahead of us. Our worst fear was that Assassin had been caught and was trying to fight Berserk on his own, but as the campsite came into view, we saw that was certainly not the case.

The campsite was wrecked from battle. I saw a tall man with a claymore battling with Berserker. Half his face was painted blue, but it was hard to tell from the blood covering his face. He struggled to block Berserker's blows with his sword, and was forced back with every strike. We were all pinned to the spot as we watched the battle continue.

I heard labored breathing from near by, and apparently so did Sam as he began moving towards it. We found its source fairly quickly. Daichi Matou was leaning against a tree, blood coming out of his arm and shoulder.

"Sam! Tohsaka! Th-that man... he's not human! He can't be! He's-"

Sam quickly put his hand over Daichi's mouth to shut him up, and began talking to him in a whisper. I could not hear any of it over the sound of fighting. Eventually, my gaze fell back to the battle. Anton had yet to charge in, apparently waiting for a victor. With a swing of his enormous axe, Berserker sent the other Servant, which had to be Saber, back several meters. Saber's left hand moved up and wiped some blood from his forehead before he held his sword above his head.

"I'll end you, monster!"

The sword began to glow a light red, and soon it burst into flames. Berserker roared loudly and charged at Saber, who charged right back in return. Their blades met, and the fire began to grow more furious. Saber pushed forward with all his might and yelled.

"Wallace-"

The blades fire was now taller than Berserker. Berserker's feet began to slide backwards as the sword started coming down onto him.

"-Blade!"

As the sword fell, the fire covered Berserker. The fire surged forward, sending Berserker flying backwards. He flew through several trees, the blaze lighting several of them on fire, and crashed into the ground with a deafening sound. Soon, all the fires extinguished, as well as the one on the blade. Saber fell to his knee's and panted in exhaustion.

Just as Anton was ready to order an attack, we heard a noise. I looked over and saw it, Berserker was getting up. Blood and burns covered Berserker's body, but the wounds inflicted on him were slowly closing. He roared loudly and charged towards Saber, who was struggling to get up.

Taking the axe in his left hand, Berserker grabbed Saber with his right and began to squeeze. Saber, having dropped his sword, struggled to break free from his grasp. I could hear Berserker's grip continue to tighten until-

Snap. The sound of bones cracking echoed through the forest, and Saber's body went limp. Berserker let go, and his body fell to the ground. After a few short moments, his body began to glitter, and he dematerialized.

As I saw this, I heard a frightened scream. I saw Daichi get up from where he was sitting, despite Sam trying to stop him, and run away as fast as he could. He held his shoulder, and I could see he was still bleeding badly. If we didn't help him he'd-

My thought were interrupted by several swords flying through the air and into Daichi's back. He fell over, and didn't move at all. I looked to where the blades came from and I saw him. His white coat moved with the wind, and he held six more of those blade between his fingers. The blades on them seemed to dematerialize like a Servant, and with a flick of his wrists they disappeared.

Berserker soon began moving over towards us, while his Master laughed.

"This is just too great. I never thought I would get to kill four Master's in a single day. Fantastic."

Berserker broke into a run towards us and Rider charged. Caster skipped the white orbs and began firing black ones straight at Berserker. Meanwhile, Sam had disappeared. I trusted him to come back when we needed him, so decided to use my magic to help fight Berserker, like Anton was doing.

"Trace, on!"

I projected the strongest gems I could imagine and threw them straight at Berserker. They exploded violently, but like last time, didn't seem to effect him at all. Rider rode in circles around Berserker, shooting arrows at him. The arrows seemed to do a little damage at least, and Berserker could not seem to keep up with him. Meanwhile, Casters spells staggered Berserker. He sometimes violently hit the ground, which would cause a cascade Caster would have to avoid before attacking again.

Like this, we bought time as we waited for Assassin's attack. Caster changed from the black orbs to his three blue orbs with the beam, trying to chip away pieces of Berserker's armor. Around the same time, Rider drew his blade once again and charged him head on. His sword and Berserker's axe met head on, and despite the major difference in size, Rider managed to hold it back and ride past him. He turned around and charged again, yelling at the top of his lungs. His war cry was met with a roar from Berserker.

"Gah!"

I heard an unfamiliar sound from a familiar voice near by. I looked over and saw Katsurou. He was holding more of those blades he used to kill Daichi between his fingers, and was repelling a strike from Assassin. He then turned his head towards our fight and yelled.

"Berserker! Kill them!"

Berserker stopped moving for a moment, long enough for Rider to run past him and slash at his legs. Then, Berserker let out a maddening roar that made chills run down my spine. At the same time, I saw Caster and Rider's eyes change a bit. Their normal color altered into a light red, and Caster held his head.

"Ugh... Master, I feel something. I... can't concentrate. It feels like... Mad Enhancement. But I don't feel any stronger."

At his words, I looked to Berserker. His eyes were glowing brighter red than ever before, and he now had a red aura surrounding him. Rider charged towards him once more, but this time when their blades met, he was flung backwards into and through a tree. Berserker then let out another roar as he smashed his axe into the ground mindlessly. Did he just use some sort of Mad Enhancement on the other Servants?

I snapped my attention back to Katsurou, who was managing to hold his own against Assassin. How can a man possibly be able to fight a Servant?! It seemed completely impossible to imagine a normal human being capable of fighting a Servant.

Rider crawled up from the mess of wrecked wood and started running towards Berserker again. He managed to hold the sword against him this time, and began fighting with him. Berserker's axe seemed to come down with enough force to wreck a car, but Rider held his blade in place and pushed back. He truly was an incredible Servant.

Caster seemed to be recovering from what ever was effecting him and Rider, and began firing the black orbs at Berserker. They didn't;t seem like they were doing much, despite the massive explosions that came from them, but I trusted Caster in knowing what he was doing.

I was suddenly distracted by the sound that came from near by. I looked back and saw Assassin, who had just taken a hit from one of the blades Katsurou seemed to have thrown. Assassin growled and continued their fight. Just as I was about to turn my attention back to the fight between Caster, Rider, and Berserker, I heard a familiar voice yell out.

"Percusserit Solis!"

A large golden light flew through the sky and slammed into Berserker's side. A massive explosion resulted from it, and blew me, Anton, Rider, and Caster backwards. The pain in my side is intolerable. I gotta get back up...

I managed to get back on my feet, just as I saw Archer dash past me at Berserker. He took his bow and slammed it over his knee, and it broke into two blades. He then leaped into the air and dived down towards the cloud of dust where Berserker was. I lost him in the cloud of smoke for a moment before he came flying backwards out of it. Just after, Berserker stood back up, most of the chest armor on that side of his body missing. He growling lowly before letting out another mad cry.

"What?! How did I not kill that thing?!"

Archer, who appeared to be without a Master, ran over to us. He looked over us all. In the mean time, Rider charged again towards Berserker to continue his battle with him.

"My Master does not know I am here right now, never have I thought Independent Action would be so useful."

Anton looked over Archer and scoffed.

"Aren't you Akako's Servant? Why would you be helping us? This has to be some kind of trap."

"I don't think so."

I spoke up. I don't know much of anything about Archer, but he chose to warn me instead of attack me at the park, going against his Masters orders, and seemed like an honorable enough person. In a dire situation like this, we would need his help.

"I think we should listen to him. But first, Caster, go with Rider and keep fighting Berserker!"

"Yes, Master."

"My Percusserit Solis was not enough to destroy that Monster, and even with my help, we'll run out of stamina before we manage to kill that beast. Do either of your Servants posses a Noble Phantasm capable of destroying such a thing?"

"My Caster has Playwright, but I don't think that will do anything."

"You're right, from what I've seen it won't work on people or Noble Phantasms, so its useless here. And you?"

Anton looked troubled as he thought to himself. It took him a few moments before he looked Archer in the eyes and nodded to him.

"Rider may have a Noble Phantasm capable of killing Berserker. But we'll have to hit him where you already knocked his armor off. Do you think you can distract him so Rider can get a clear shot?"

"I'll do my best, now let's go! If Caster can support me it would be of great help."

Archer leaped into the air and began pelting Berserker with arrows. All of them pierced his exposed skin, much deeper than those of Rider. I called out to Caster to ensure he supported Archer, while Anton whistled Rider over to him. Rider continued to fight Berserker until his attention was completely focused on Archer, and then retreated over to us.

"Rider, we need to use your Noble Phantasm. We're going to end this fight. Archer has Berserker distracted, so we need to his exposed side."

Rider closed his eyes a moment, then nodded to his Master. He waved his hand and muttered something under his breath, and a horse was summoned. Rider mounted first, followed by Anton, and they road off. Feeling left out, I project more gems and threw them at Berserker's back. I knew they would do next to nothing, but I felt helpless just standing there alone. I closed my eyes to project more gems and-

"Hold it right there, Little Miss Tohsaka."

Katsurou appeared from out of nowhere and was now twisting my arm. The pain is almost unbearable, his strength is super-human! He held down one of my pressure points, and I quickly found myself unable to project anything else. I panicked. I struggled with all my might, I have to get him off me!

"I'll end you quickly, and then I'll kill this little coalition. I never thought the Grail war would end today, but look, all the Servants are in attendance."

Katsurou laughed a bit and tightened his grip. Pain shot through my body and I could feel my bones reaching their breaking point. Katsurou grinned at me like an insane murderer as his hand continued to grip my arm tighter and tighter.

"Suffer like Kotomine did, you miserable little-"

Blood splashed on my face. Katsurou's eyes shot open and he backed up. Some how, his arm did not seem to move though. I looked at it and-

It's not connected. The arm that's holding me isn't connected. It's not connected to his body any more. The arm that's holding me isn't connected to his body anymore. Blood is gushing out of his arm, and Katsurou fell backwards, holding onto the stub of his arm, cut off a little below the shoulder, screaming in pain. Blood. Blood. Blood everywhere. It's on my face. It's on my clothes. It's on the ground. It's everywhere. So much blood.

"Snap out of it! Tohsaka!"

A sliver of my sanity returned as someone shook my shoulders violently. I looked up and saw his face. I remember him, I was wondering where he went.

"Sam..."

Sam was shaking my shoulders with his left hand, holding a short sword in his right hand. The sword lightly glowed purple, most likely enchanted, and was covered in blood. Oh, I see, so Sam must have cut Katsurou's arm off to save me. I felt my stomach turning over at the thought and tried not to think about it. I looked away from the corpse and towards Berserker, who turned to look at me and Sam.

With an enraged cry, Berserker charged full speed towards me and Sam. We were both frozen in the spot by the surprise. The only thing left to do is wait for the impact and die a painful-

"Sword of Mars!"

A sudden flash. It was blinding. So much that it still hurts now. A blast of lightning came from seemingly nowhere into Berserker's exposed side. He let out an amazingly loud roar as the lightning ripped into his flesh. At the same time, I saw Archer leap into the air behind Berserker.

"Percusserit Solis!"

The lightning ravaged Berserker's exposed side as the golden blast of energy slammed into the back of Berserker's head. He let out one last, deafening roar as the light consumed him. As his cry died down, it was replaced by the roaring of a massive explosion. It power of the blast sent me, Sam, and the still screaming, one armed Katsurou back several meters.

It was easier to get up from this blast than the first one, as I was helped up by Sam. I looked at where the blast had happened, and saw the remains of Berserker dematerializing. I looked down at Katsurou, who was coughing up blood as he continued to hold the stub of his one arm.

"No... how did you... No! Stay away from me!"

He rolled over onto his stomach and used his one arm to try and crawl away. After crawling a few inches, Sam walked over to him and stuck the purple glowing sword into his back. Katsurou yelled in pain as Sam twisted it in him, and then ripped it out. Blood spilled out of Katsurou's mouth as his yell died down, and he stopped moving. It was very hard to watch.

"It's done... as of tonight, our Anti-Berserker Coalition is dissolved. I think it's fair that we all give each other the evening to rest after what we all worked together to achieve? I also propose we all meet at Kotomine Church tomorrow and finish this war. The Grail will Appear at the Church this time, and I think our mutual interest would say a fair fight tomorrow would be the best option. Anyway..."

Sam said this while looking between us all. From me, Anton, Caster, Archer and Rider. Anton nodded softly, Rider and Archer followed suit. With everybody else on board, I nodded. Sam sighed a bit and sheathed his sword, Assassin materializing behind him, covered in wounds. Sam started walking away as Assassin spoke while following him.

"I apologize, Master. I was unable to kill Berserker's Master."

"That's fine, Assassin, I had no idea he was an Executor from the Church. I never would have expected you to beat him if I knew."

"What did you say?"

Anton stepped forward to Sam as he spoke. Sam turned around and sighed. He motioned to Katsurou's corpse. He walked over and reached into his coat, pulling out his cross necklace and several of the hilts of the blades he was using.

"Look, these are Black Keys. The only people in the world who know how to wield these properly are Executors of the Church. It's not unheard of for a member of the Church to posses magical talent."

Sam threw the necklace and hilts to the ground and started walking off again.

"As I said, we can all fight tomorrow. I'm exhausted, and I'm sure you all are too."

He was right. After all the mana I spent fighting Berserker, and all the running I had to do to avoid Berserker, I had hardly any energy left. Anton and Archer nodded, and started heading their separate ways. I watched Sam disappear into the forest heading towards town, and Anton towards the ruins of Katsurou's camp. Caster walked over to me and put his hand on my shoulder.

"I no longer feel the Mad Enhancement-like effect on my body. I think that might have been Berserker's Noble Phantasm."

"Yeah... Let's go home."

I sighed loudly and started walking out of the forest. When I get home, I'm going to take a long bath, and sleep the day away. I think its perfectly fair after all the work we all did here today, and-

"Master."

Caster called to me, and I turned around.

"Yeah?"

Caster motioned to Katsurou's corpse. I looked at it and shrugged.

"What about him?"

I tried my best to forget the blood splashing all over me when he lost his arm. The mere thought of it makes me want to vomit.

"Master, I thought he had his arm cut off at the shoulder."

"He did."

"Then why is his hand missing?"

I looked at his disembodied arm and, sure enough, his hand was missing from it. I don't ever remember it getting cut off, and there was no real reason to cut it off after the arm came off. I shrugged and looked away from the bloody mess.

"It... it doesn't matter does it? I really, really want to get away from that thing!"

"Master, his Command Seals were on that hand."

I turned around at Caster's words.

"What are you saying?"

"Simply, that one of our allies must have cut off Berserker's Master's hand to get his Command Seals. Even without a Servant, if one can transfer the Command Seals to them self, they will have a major advantage in the war."

I thought about this a moment. To my knowledge, Katsurou never used any of his Command Seals. Meaning who ever took his hand, if they knew how to transfer Seals, had three additional Command Seals. I could very easily see how useful that could be to somebody. They probably have the biggest advantage among the remaining four Masters.

"Well Caster... lets just go home for now! The war ends tomorrow, so you'll need all the mana you can get!"

I started off home, keeping my eyes closed. The image of Katsurou losing his arm was still fresh in my mind, and I wanted to forget it by tomorrow. Caster sighed and followed behind me. We both arrived home shortly after lunch time, the image had yet to leave my mind, so I was not hungry at all. Caster spent all day in the basement restoring his mana, and I stayed in my room, trying to sleep.

I was unable to sleep with the thought of Katsurou in my mind. It took me this long to realize it, but I finally had it figured out. It was not the fact his arm came off that terrified me so much. It was the fact that Sam was so easily able to do it. He took of his arm in one swing, he didn't at all by it. He ever took things from his corpse a bit later to show them to Anton. I could not believe the Sam I know could do something like that so easily. It's not like him at all.

I tossed and turned in bed as I thought this over. Soon enough, I found a comfortable spot on my bed. I sunk into it and cleared my mind of anything besides resting, and went to sleep.

Tomorrow, this war is going to end. I need to make sure that no matter what, I win it. I have to beat Anton, Archer, and even Sam. No matter what happens.


	14. Chapter 14

_Fate/Generation - Chapter 14_

_**Day Nine**_

My mom and dad let me sleep in as long as I wanted today. I eventually got around to getting out of bed sometime around noon. By the time I had showered, washed my face, and got dressed, it was nearly one in the evening. I went downstairs, and saw my dad in the kitchen. He smiled at me and went right to work making me some food.

"So it all comes down to today, right?"

"Yeah... And I'm going to win this."

"That's the spirit. Me and your mother will be eagerly awaiting your return here. All the remaining Master's agreed the battle would be decided by a Servant battle, right? Meaning no more Master's will die?"

"That's the gist of it."

Dad brought a pretty big breakfast to the table and I started eating right away. I didn't eat much of anything yesterday, so I was starving. After breakfast, I went to the basement and got Caster. He smiled and followed me back upstairs.

"Today it all ends, Master. We either win, or lose, based on the outcome of this final battle."

"You're right, and we're going to win."

"I am unsure what makes you so confident, but I shalt try not to dampen your spirit."

I went to the front door and put my shoes on. The final battle was going to be at Kotomine Church, at night time, of course. I had a few good hours to kill before it, so I started walking over to Shinto. I crossed the bridge into town and started shopping. Unlike yesterday, where it was on the way, this time I brought money with me. After an hour or so spent window shopping, I bought a few new outfits. It felt really nice being able to do something like this during the Grail War.

I walked home, put my outfits in my closet, and spent the rest of the daylight hours with my parents. They gave me advice here and there, but it was mostly playing games with them. Soon, the sun fell below the skyline, and darkness fell over the city. I bid my parents farewell as me and Caster headed towards Kotomine Church. I walked to the other side of the bridge, and as I began walking out of the town towards the Church, I saw a familiar face.

"Hey! Tohsaka!"

"Tsubaki?! What are you doing here?"

Tsubaki, wearing what looks like one of Sister Ortensia's old outfits, came running over to me. She smiled from ear to ear, then looked over Caster a bit before looking back at me.

"Well, the only four Master's left are nice people, right? So I have nothing to worry about! Besides, the battle is going to be at the church from what Sister Caren told me, so I'd be more safe at home."

I guess she has a point. There could always be an accident during the fighting, and she's safer on the other side of the city. And as she said, I can trust all the people left, with the exception of Archer's Master, but Archer himself seems to be a good enough person. I nodded to Tsubaki.

"Me and Caster were just on our way to go fight. Wish me luck!"

"Sure thing! Oh, and some foreigner was looking for a you a little ways back! Might wanna look for him!"

She probably means Anton. I ran ahead to get the Church quickly, and only a few minutes later I could see Anton standing a short distance from the base of the hill leading the Kotomine Church. I could hear the light sound of weapons clashing and could see the occasional flicker of light coming from the top of the hill. Archer and Assassin must be having their battle already. Anton walked towards me when he saw me, and we met up fairly easily. Rider was on his horse a short distance behind him, and we smiled at each other when we finally faced each other.

"Tonights the night, Lady Tohsaka. I consider it my personal pleasure to be able to battle you fairly for the Grail."

"The feeling is mutual. Anything you would like to say before we begin?"

"Just don't think I'll go easy on you because you're a young lady. With that, we may battle."

Anton turned around with Rider, and I did the same. After walking a short distance, we turned to face each other once more. Rider smiled at me, and Caster made sure his cloak was properly on his shoulder. It was with this calm and friendly atmosphere that our battle began.

Rider started by charging towards Caster. Caster fired some of his white orbs to Rider, which were easily blocked with his sword. The sword I saw yesterday gave me an advantage in this fight.

The Sword of Mars. Only one person in the world was ever known to battle with that sword. This meant we were battling the Epic Spirit of Attila the Hun. With Rider's true identity in both my and Caster's possession, we looked for something that could help us in this battle. The battle continued as Caster was now firing his black orbs at Rider. When Rider got too close to him, Caster would leap away and continue. It looked like he was trying to wear down Rider.

Rider put his sword away and started riding in a circle around Caster. He took out a bow and started firing arrows at Caster, which he had a hard time stopping with his orbs. Eventually, Caster summoned his blue orbs and started using his beam to destroy the arrows. He then moved the beam and pointed it in the area Rider's horse was charging too. Rider tried to stop, but was unable to before his horses limbs were severed from its body. He toppled over and met the ground unceremoniously.

Rider forced his way back up and licked his lips as he drew his blade again. He waved his hand in the air and another horse materialized. He appeared to have a limitless amount of them. Caster appeared to be giving him the time to remount, which Rider used graciously. Once on his new horse, he snapped the reigns loudly, but something was different this time. His horse kicked up a massive cloud of dust, but that was not just it.

The cloud of dust was what I saw the first time I saw him. There was enough dust to assume there was a stampede charging at us. Caster quickly realized what was going on and raced over to me. He grabbed me and leaped as far into the air as he could as Rider road under us. He landed and urged me to get some distance from me.

"I'm not exactly sure what that doth be, Master, but I am more than certain that if that hits you, you'll no longer be with us."

Caster moved back into the fight, and started firing a mix of the white and black orbs at Rider. Rider seemed to have trouble destroying all of them, and each one he hit exploded against his sword. It was hard to even imagine how powerful he had to be if those did not phase him in the slightest. He continued to charge as Caster moved quickly out of his path, resuming his hail of magical power.

Rider's horse kicked up on the ground and charged with a new speed at Caster. Caster, taken by surprise, could hardly dodge as Rider swung his sword at him. The sword ripped into Caster's coat on his shoulder, and blood began to trickle out of it. Caster simply smiled as he grabbed his book.

"Rider! I know your true identity after the display of your Noble Phantasm yesterday. I feel it is only fair If I show you my own."

Caster grabbed his cloak and threw it off him. It appeared he would be using Playwright again. However, I soon noticed his cloak was dematerializing. The magical energy used to make up his cloak flowed into Caster as the book floated in front of him. The book began to glow as both it and Caster started to slowly lift into the sky. Anton, Rider and I all found ourselves watching in wonder at what Caster's other Noble Phantasm might be.

Caster looked down at me and smiled before closing his eyes and taking his quill in his hand. He lifted it into the air before placing it on the parchment of his book, and running it straight down the page.

"Raise the Curtain!"

The pages of Caster's book began flying out from its binding. Pages grouped together as they moved to the ground, and shaped into human like shapes. Soon after, they glowed with magical power and took shape. I gazed at the sight before me amazed. I saw a large group of people, made from Caster's pages. They looked to be of different race, and different times. I saw several young men holding this rapiers, and men with Roman armor on horses with spears. I saw a few older men with blades, and a boy about my age with a knife. All these figures appeared as Caster's feet touched the ground once more.

"Behold, Rider! These are the character of the works I spent so long creating! Montague followers and Capulet soldiers! Roman legionaries and Scottish guards! All these men serve me in this fabled existence I have brought apon them! Now, Rider, face me!"

Rider looked over the soldiers in wonder before grinning to himself. He charged straight at them, he dust of a stampede kicking up behind his mount once more. The small army of several dozen mismatched warriors charged ahead to face their new opponent, while Caster stayed back and began chanting to himself, clutching the now empty bindings of his book.

Riders stampede easily ran over the first wave of Caster's familiars, however, it soon came to a stop and circled around as he started battling them on Horseback. While even all these familiars combined could not match Rider in power, they were all able to hold Rider back and keep him occupied. I watched as Rider charged around their ranks and killed some of them with single slashes. Once they fell, they turned into magical energy and returned to Caster. I could see Caster continuing his chant as he held one of his black orbs, and a red orb I had never seen before in his hands.

Rider continued to battle with the familiars as he appeared to pick up his pace with their killing. Only a small handful of the original force remained when the rest of them suddenly turned into pages that flew back to Caster's book. Caster looked up at Caster and smiled and he brought the red and black orbs together. They fused and began to grow, the red orb taking the main shape while a stain of black began sliding around the spinning orb. The more Caster spread out his arms, the bigger the orb grew.

"I'll be honest Rider, I never expected you to kill so many of them. This is seriously going to effect my battle with the victor of Assassin and Archer's battle, but I'll make do. For now, i think thy time has run out."

Caster held out hone hand, the now massive orb following it. Caster made a fist, and with that, the orb was sent flying towards Rider. Rider looked at the oncoming orb, sighed, and drew his blade once more. His horse kicked up the massive dust cloud as it charged full speed towards Casters oncoming orb. He slowly got up and stood on top of his horse as he pulled his sword back. With a voice full of power, he shouted.

"Sword of Mars!"

The lightning shot forth from Riders blade, and it began striking Caster's orb. I could see the orb slowly beginning to cave where the lightning was hitting, and with a loud crackling sound, the lightning shot clean through it and towards caster.

"What?!"

Caster quickly put all his power into a barrier and dug his feet into the ground. Sadly, that barrier only lasted a few seconds against the lightning from Riders sword and sent Caster flying backwards. However, I noticed something else.

The orb Caster fired at Rider was still going. Rider slid himself back into the saddle and closed his eyes as the orb completely enveloped him. A short while after, there was a massive explosion. Caster slowly got to his feet, the fabric of his jacket and undershirt burned completely from his left shoulder, where the lightning hit him.

The explosion's cloud faded slowly, and I could see the sparkling of a dematerializing Servant amoung the dust. My gaze quickly shifted to Anton, who was watching the same sight in wonder. We all stood there watching as Rider left our world. After the dust settled, Anton walked over to the site of the explosion and ran his hand over the ground softly. Me and Caster walked over to him, and he stood up to look at us.

"Young lady Tohsaka... I have no words. Your Caster is an amazing Heroic spirit... or maybe mine was just not good enough... no, that's not it, your Servant is truly one of a kind. I submit this victory to you, miss Tohsaka."

We all looked up to the top of the hill, a few more flashes of light and faint noises rang out before they all faded. The battle atop the hill had also ended. Now it was just me, and who ever was left. I looked to Anton, and he nodded to me.

"Your last battle awaits you up there, Lady Tohsaka. With any luck, your friend bested my old apprentice. But if he failed, do give her all you can for me. I won't forgive you if you lose."

"Wait... Archer's Master is your apprentice?"

"She was. She left my guidance after she decided she needed to learn more powerful magic to get what she wanted. She is a selfish and heartless person, unlike her Servant. Do me a favor, and if she was the winner of that fight, don't let her get the Grail. I beg of you."

"Of course."

Anton smiled at me as he looked at the last place Rider was before he disappeared. He sighed loudly and laughed a bit before looking at the stars.

"At least I picked a beautiful night to lose... oh well. Then, Miss Tohsaka, I have a lot of work to do. I need to prepare my return to France. So, with this, I say adieu, Mademoiselle."

Doing up the buttons of his coat and putting his hands into his pockets. Anton turned from the church and began walking away. I stood there and watched as he left for a while before Caster put his hand on my shoulder.

"I don't thin thy opponent if fond of us making them wait. Shall we be off, my Master?"

"Yeah... lets finish this."

With my words of confidence, me and Caster began climbing the hill to Kotomine Church. Caster held his shoulder where Rider's Noble Phantasm had hit him, obviously, it must have done a lot of damage on him. We climbed together, my pocket full of gems and Caster with his book in his hand. I noticed Caster's book was now missing most of its pages, probably from all the familiars he lost to Rider during that battle. He sighed loudly as we neared the top of the hill.

Once at the top of the hill, we saw a amazing sight. The entire area in front of Kotomine church was a horrible mess. Rubble had kicked up everywhere, tree's were knocked over. One would expect something like this from a battle with Berserker, but against Archer and Assassin, I expected a lot less damage. Finally, I saw what I was looking for. Sam was leaning against the front door of Kotomine Church, with assassin perched on the roof above him. He was wearing his usual all black battle outfit and didn't seem to be looking at me.

"Master."

Caster cut into my analysis of the scene and urged my attention elsewhere. I looked and saw exactly what he wanted to show me. Akako, Archer's Master, was leaning against a tree. However, blood covered her body and her chest was filled with Assassin's knives. My mind went blank at this. Weren't we only suppose to battle with Servants?! Why did Archer's Master have to die?!

I looked at Sam, who started laughing as he leaned up from the door. Assassin jumped down from the churches roof and wordlessly followed his Master.

"It's down to you and me, Lady of the Tohsaka Family."

The words from Sam's mouth betrayed everything I knew of him. It was his body, and his voice, but I know Sam. Okay, that's not true. I thought I knew Sam, but this Grail War proved differently. Since all this started, he has been acting much differently from the Sam I knew, but I do know this much. Those words are not Sam's. Sam grabbed the hat and bandanna from his head and threw them to the side. I could see right away something was wrong. His eyes were glowing a dim red, and his movements were slightly sluggish.

Caster immediately stepped up and readied a spell. Sam, no, this monster who appeared to be Sam walked towards him still, laughing again.

"I've waited so long for this day. The day I claim the Grail and reach my true potential. You could never hope to understand the struggles of the Parker family, Miss Tohsaka. So just be happy that the one who will kill you is the man you trusted so much.

"Hold it right there! I will not allow you to harm my Master, you or your Servant Assassin! Now come forth, duel me!"

Caster stomped his foot angrily. I could see he was not in the mood to be calm like he was with Rider. He stared walking forward, as did Assassin. The two stopped a few feet from each other and Sam sighed.

"Well, I really don't have time for Assassin to fight your Caster, Tohsaka. So I'll just stop this and end it now."

Sam grabbed one of his gloves and pulled it off. Under it was a sight I could not believe. I saw his Command Seals, which I could have expected, however, something was horribly wrong.

Seven, there were Seven Command seals on the back of his hand. He cracked his knuckles and pointed at Akako's corpse with a look that showed he held her at the same value as his trash.

"That dumb woman over there cost me two of my Command Seals, not that i needed so many anyway. Luckily, the girl was such an idiot that she used up all of her own. When ever her precious Servant fell she would use her command Seals and force him up again. Sure enough the second time she used her last Seal. It's comical, really."

He's right. I remember during my one battle with Archer she forced him up with a Command Seal. I could not believe she really managed to use up all of them though. I glared up at this figure who took the shape of my old friend and yelled.

"So why did you kill her?! She was of no threat or value! What did she do to deserve death?!"

"Simple, she was worthless. A woman who can't even count her Command Seals does not deserve to live."

I could feel my fists unconsciously clenching and I grit my teeth. Caster also looked enraged as Sam slowly raised a hand into the air. He smiled at me and shifted his gaze to the sky.

"It was really lucky for me. Thanks to her accidentally canceling her contract with Archer by losing all her Seals, and due to my own extra one's, I managed to secure a new pet."

Sam snapped his fingers loudly and then stared stepping back.

"Archer, deal with the Servant. Assassin, you kill the girl."

Archer materialized in front of Sam, just a behind Assassin. His mouth was firmly shut and his entire body shook. The two Command Seals Sam lost were probably used forcing Archer to his will. Archer took forced, hesitant steps towards me as Assassin watched all of us. Sam watched the entire sight with a hint of joy in his eyes, and he laughed once again.

"This is it, then! Farewell, Lady of the Tohsaka Family!"


	15. Chapter 15

_**Day Nine: 12:03**_

Tohsaka Haruki glared down her opponent. Caster stood in front of her to protect her. Assassin crouched down and kept his gaze fixed on Haruki. Archer unwillingly readied his bow to kill Caster. And Sam stood there, watching it all with a twisted, happy expression on his face. The plan could not have gone better. The thought went through the mind of the being controlling the body of Sam.

Archer pulled the bow across the string with shaking hands, and hesitantly held the arrow, trying hard not to release it. The power of the Command Seal worked against his wishes as His fingers began to loosen. He fought against the control of his Master as long as he could, his body betraying his own free will as the strength began to fade from his fingers. Sam grew visibly agitated, and Caster raised his hands to cast a spell.

"Do it Archer! By the Power of my Command Seals, I command you to-"

"I suggest you stop."

Sam hurriedly looked around to see a familiar figure standing at the entrance of the Church. Sister Caren Ortensia stood there, dressed in her battle garb, holding her mystic cloth of binding. Sam's eyes widened a bit before he smiled.

"Archer... change of plans. Kill her instead."

Archer spun around and prepared to release the arrow, but that was as far as he made it.

"Now."

Caren's monotone, emotionless voice lightly echoed in the night silence, and a figure leaped from the roof of the church. A faint reflection of red light shined from the moonlight, and the mysterious figure shouted out to Archer.

"Gae-"

Archer's gaze shot up at the figure, just in time to witness his spectacular attack.

"-Bolg!"

The Gae Bolg, the cursed spear of Ireland's Son of Light, shot down from the sky and pierced Archer's body. Archer's arrow completely missed its target due to the impact, and Archer was slammed into the ground from the power of the strike. The cursed spear disappeared from the body of Archer, and returned to it owner's hands as he landed next to Caren. The man, wearing blue body armor and shining silver shoulder pads looked to his Master.

"Good dog."

"You've been saying that enough years that it doesn't bother me at this point."

"Puppy."

"Don't call me a puppy!"

Lancer yelled at his Master as she taunted him, and Sam stood in disbelief at what had just happened. Archer slowly rose from the ground, blood gushing from his wound as he tried to regain his footing.

"Caren! How on Earth do you have a Servant in your possession?! All the Servant's in this war besides Archer, Assassin and Caster are dead!"

"Simple, I kept this one around. After the false Grail War, I simply decided I didn't want my favorite pet to leave. Is it so hard to believe?"

Sam quickly snapped to attention, turned around, drew his blade, and charged at Haruki. Haruki, surprised by all the sudden actions, stepped back. Caster was still hardly in any shape to fight, but he stood his ground and pulled out his book.

"I won't let you harm... my Master..."

As Caster tried to cast a spell once more, Lancer charged at Archer. Archer snapped his bow over his knee and created his swords to defend himself and Assassin leaped into the air. Caren ran after Sam with her holy cloth of binding, and just as it appeared the final battle had begun, his voice rang out.

"I don't think so!"

Lancer landed in front of Haruki and spun his spear around with such speed that it was only a blur. He grinned happily and pointed his spear towards Assassin in the air, who was forced to move back and stop his attack. Sam scoffed angrily as his charge was halted, but he smiled and stepped forward.

"Assassin, deal with Lancer. Archer-"

Sam cleared his throat and held out his arm.

"By the power of my Command Seals, Archer, I command you to assist Assassin."

Archer's body was able to resist for only a moment before he began to fire towards the knight in blue. Lancer leaped into the air after deflecting his arrows to draw the fire away from Haruki. Caster then started to chant a spell at the now Servantless Sam.

"Hmph- I can beat a third-rate Epic Spirit like you easily."

Haruki stepped forward and pulled some gems from her pocket.

"Stay back! These are powerful gems and I won't hesitate to kill you with them!"

"You shouldn't."

Unexpectedly, it was Sister Ortensia's voice that interrupted Haruki's threat. She kept a distance from the battle and pointed at Sam.

"Though he may be trying to kill you, you should not simply try and end his life. Young Mister Parker is not responsible. From what I've gathered, it is the senior of his family who is now with us. He is a specialist in Mental magic, and I do think he has taken control of our good friends body. As for a reason, I don't-"

Caren's speech was stopped as Sam burst into laughter. He cackled madly and held his chest tightly.

"Brilliant, Caren! I expected no less from you, though. She is right, Lady of Tohsaka. My son was doing a terrible job with the Grail War. Despite all I gave him and all the training he underwent for this day, he let simple feelings get in his way. No child who lets such things get in the way of his families achievements is worthy of being my son."

With that, Sam unsheathed the sword once more. Caren stepped forward to stop him and sent the Mystic cloth of binding to capture him. However, with inhuman reflexes, Sam turned and cut the cloth down the middle before it could reach him. Caren gasped and stepped dodged backwards, but she was too late, and was absorbed in a blast of fire coming from Sam's free hand. She rolled out from the fire ball with some small burns, but more importantly, her main weapon was now useless.

"Did you really think you're tricks would work on me, Caren? I've known you since the day you were born, you really should at least try and come up with something I couldn't predict."

"Then how about this?"

Sam turned to the voice of Caster just in time to be faced with a hail of black orbs. He rolled backwards to avoid some, and blocked others with his blade. He growled loudly at the power of a Servant, but soon started charging forward. Amidst the fighting, the wound Sam had suffered at the hands of Saber opened up, despite all the healing done to it. Sam grit his teeth and ignored the pain.

"My useless son's body may be destroyed before I even lose my hold on him, pathetic."

Sam prepared the blade as he dodged and cut his way through Caster's hail of orbs. Once in range, he took a swipe at the Servants side. Caster dodged to the right, but not before the blade swept through the cloth shroud on his shoulder. Caster quickly regained his footing and opened his book.

Meanwhile, the knight in blue, Lancer, battled with Archer and Assassin on the roof of Kotomine Church. Assassin waited in the shadows while Archer battled the Servant, and attacked ever chance he got. However, Lancer always managed to stop his sneak attacks. Archer leaped into the air and continued to fire hails of arrows at Lancer, who reflected them with relative arrows.

"I know this isn't all you've got! Come on! Ya scared?"

Archer silently landed a good few meters from Lancer, shook his head, and resumed firing. Lancer finally pieced the situation together and grinned at the Servant.

"I see, so that guy back there must've used a Command Seal to shut you up, and now you can't use your Noble Phantasm, huh?"

"No, but I can."

"Wha-?!"

Lancer moved to block the shadowy knife flung at his side, but he was a moment too late. The blade sliced away at his side as he tried to dodge it, and blood spilled on the roof of the Holy building. Lancer glared at where the voice came from, and saw Assassin standing up and holding two curved black blades in his hands.

"What are you up too, Assassin?"

"As the other partner of my Master cannot fight at his fullest, I must compensate by fighting at mine."

"You do realize the guy down there ain't your Master, right? The boy you teamed up with isn't the mind in that body."

"It matters not who my Master is. As long as I get the Grail, I am satisfied."

Lancer grit his teeth and spun his lance to block more arrows from Archer. Once the volley stopped, Lancer charged towards Assassin.

"You know it's guys like you who really piss me off!""

Assassin leaped to the top of the Church to escape Lancer charge, and then returned to even ground with him. He looked towards the Servant and let out a small laugh. Lancer charged again at the enemy Servant, however, a long held secret was finally revealed.

"Zabaniya."

Lancer's charge was brought to a sudden stop at the sight in front of him. From the sides and back of Assassin, fourteen ethereal arms appeared. Each arm brandished the same curved blade Assassin had been holding. The extra arms forced the full body cloak off of Assassin, who laughed contently.

"I thought that my Master power would make me able to go through the Grail War without having to use my Noble Phantasm, however, you were not expected."

Lancer glared at the misshapen figure of Assassin in front of him and charged once more. At the same time, Archer was doing his all to resist as the power of Sam's Command Spell weakened on him. He fired arrows at Lancer at a slower pace, and the arrows lacked the power they had before.

Lancer striked at Assassin as quickly as he could, but each blow was deflected by one of Assassin's many new arms. Soon, Lancer found himself being forced backwards as Assassin started walking slowly toward him.

As Lancer battled the Fourteen armed Assassin, and Archer battled the control his new Master, Sam was busy dodging blasts of magical energy from both Caster and Haruki. When ever Sam got within striking range of Caster, he would escape the reach of his sword and continue to bombard him with his white orbs. However, his movements were slowing. Even using as little mana as possible, he still was at a dangerously low amount after using his Noble Phantasm against Rider, and taking the hit from Rider's own Noble Phantasm.

Sam stopped a moment and glared at Caster, panting heavily.

"Even a weakened, third-rate Servant like you can defeat this weak body. I guess I raised a failure of a son..."

As Sam felt his control over Archer fading, he yelled out quickly.

"By the power of my Command Seals! Archer, kill Caren's Servant!"

Sam readied his sword again and charged at Caster again. Caster opened his book again and prepared to attack once more, but suddenly, Sam stopped in his tracks. His body shook a bit, and blood slowly began to trickle out of his mouth as he spoke

"H-how... are you..."

The veins on Sam's face began to grow and bulge. His face, neck, shoulders and arms all began to deform from the change in his veins, he looked deformed. With what looked like dozens of small tentacles running under his skin, he started taking small steps forward, sword in hand. His eyes, however, looked exhausted as he turned his gaze to Haruki.

"Haruki... hey..."

Haruki's eyes opened widely. The voice she heard was not that of the voice she had been hearing, but was the familiar tone of Sam.

"Sam?! Is that really you?"

"Haruki... kill me."

Haruki stopped moving as she stared at Sam. He continued to approach her, and raised his sword. His movements were reluctant, and his expression occasionally squinted in pain. His breathing was labored as he kept walking.

"Shamefully... I no longer have control of my body. Heh, I guess I overestimated how powerful I really was. So I'm asking you now, kill me."

"I... can't kill you. We can help you!"

Sam opened his mouth to speak, but fell to his knee's in pain instead. His free hand moved to hold his aching head. He looked up after a moment, and Haruki saw something she never had before. Sam had tears running down his face.

"Shut up! Haruki! Kill me! Don't let me be his puppet anymore!"

Haruki felt her own eyes water at the sight before her. She reached a shaky hand into her pocket and feebly grasped a few gems. As she lifted them out of her pocket, she did all she could to smile at Sam as she started crying herself.

"I'm sorry, Sam... I'm so sorry. I'll... I'll kill y-"

"I'm afraid not."

The mysterious voice echoed and, before anybody could react to it, a black blade found it's way to Caster's throat. With a single motion, Caster's head was severed from the rest of his body, and the lifeless corpse fell to the ground. Sam looked at the event in horror, and looked to the culprit.

"We are victorious, my Master."

Assassin, who was stained in blood, having the remains of twelve sliced arms dangling lifelessly from his body, looked to his Master and nodded. Sam forced himself to stand as his body shook. A mixture of confusing, anger and regret filled Sam's body, and he felt his Father's control weakening. He shifted his gaze to the black clad Servant in front of him, as Caster's headless body dematerialized in the background, and Haruki fell to the ground like a marionette with her strings cut.

"Assassin... I never gave you an order... to attack..."

"The situation called for it. If I did not act, you would be dead."

Sam, still in great pain from fighting back the influence of his father, toppled his way towards Assassin as the tears staining his cheeks dried up, and his eyes grew bloodshot in anger.

"I wanted to die! I wanted it! Do you not understand that?!"

Assassin only nodded solemnly.

"I do, however, if you did, I would not receive the Grail."

"And what about Archer?!"

Assassin looked to the roof, where the sounds of battle had died down from moments earlier. He turned his gaze back to his Master, and nodded once more.

"Once you used another Command Seal on him to draw the Blue Knights attention, I came here to save you. As you can tell, Archer met his end at the hand of such a Servant."

Sam stepped forward to shout once more, but the pain in his body forced him to the ground. He fell and looked to Assassin for a moment, before a brilliantly golden light shined out from the corner of Sam's eyes. Assassin, Sam, and even Haruki shifted their gaze to the source of the light. At the same time, Lancer leaped from the roof of the Church to the pavement below before charging towards Assassin.

"Lancer, stop."

Lancer's movements came to a halt as a voice came from the door to the Church. Caren Ortensia stood there, her Holy Shroud put away, holding the door of the Church open.

"They've won already, Lancer. There is nothing more you can do."

Without another word, Caren stepped into the Church. After a moment's hesitation, Lancer silently dematerialized to follow her. Assassin and Sam continued to stare at the Grail in wonder. Assassin stepped forward, looking at the Grail. He reached a hand towards the light, as if bathing his pitch black skin in it's golden aura.

Sam, no longer stunned by the Grail's appearance, crawled towards the Grail with all his power. He got as close to it as he could before his body gave out. His vision began to go black, and his consciousness began to fade. There was only one thing on his mind as he fell into the blackness.

'There is only one thing I could ever wish for...'


	16. Epilouge

_**Epilouge: Eight Months Later**_

Since the day the defined my life, it's been exactly Eight months. As one would expect, a lot happened in that time. For starter's, when I first woke up from that night at the Church, I was in a bed in Sister Ortensia's church. At that point, I had bee unconscious for about fifteen hours. Sister Ortensia used a lot of her healing magic to fix me up after that, and it showed. By all accounts, I should have died on that day. Breaking free of my Father's control put strain on my body no human should have survived. Ninty-seven of my blood vessels popped, I suffered six blood clots, and went into cardiac arrest shortly after I was knocked out. By all accounts, if Sister Ortensia didn't so anything, I'd be dead a hundred times over.

She spent at least four days healing me virtually non-stop, and even then I was stuck in the bed at the church for three months. Surprisingly, those three months were not as bad as one would expect. Every day, from noon until dusk, Tsubaki would come to the Church to tell me about how she was and how everybody was doing. She eventually figured out what happened to Daichi on her own, and that ruined her mood for a few days. Despite that though, I was probably only able to remain sane through those three months thanks to Tsubaki.

Unfortunately, Tsubaki skipped school every single day in order to see me. By the time I was better, her attendance was too low for her to graduate no matter how hard she tried. She ended up repeating the 3rd year, ending up in the same class as Haruki. I, of course, dropped out of school. I could not go back to America due to the risk of my Father, and I could not stay where I had been, for obvious reasons. The deaths of the couple I killed was blamed on my Father, though I think Sister Ortensia may know the truth.

Anyway, with nowhere to go, I lived with Sister Ortensia for a few weeks after I was fully healed. Those weeks were some of the most enlightening of my life. I learned a lot about Sister Ortensia, who turned out to be fairly sadistic and cruel to those she likes, as he constant pranks on me proved. I also manager a few conversations with her Servant, who turned out the be Ireland's Son of Light, the Hound of Chulainn. Me and him never really got along, except when it came to our mutual opinions of Sister Ortensia.

Eventually, Tsubaki came to me with an interesting proposal. She reminded me of the promise I made her before the end of the Grail War, that once I won I would take her out on a date, and pressed the subject firmly. Though I did not consider it a victory, I was in fact true that I did win the Grail War, and my wish was in fact granted. So, once I was able to move around easily, I did take Tsubaki on that date. At first it was not exactly any different from any other day I spent with her, but I did enjoy myself. Towards the end, I felt it was different, though I didn't know what to make of it. I told Haruki, who laughed at me for about ten minutes before explaining to me that I liked Tsubaki more than I knew.

The next time Tsubaki came to the Church, her parents were with her. They told me they wanted me to live with them in their home, and that I could stay as long as I wanted. Happy to have a new place to call home, and even more happy to be rid of Sister Ortensia's attitude and pranks, I accepted the offer graciously. I started living with the Mitsugamiyo family as if I were their own child, all while Tsubaki decided to keep our relationship a secret to them. We were eventually found out a few weeks later, but her parents did not seem to mind. I'm sure they were happy their second generation daughter was a possible candidate to marry an eleventh generation Magus.

The next few months went by and I eventually found myself completely in love with Tsubaki. Her parents were happy to see us together, and I continued to live with them, which leads me to today. Currently, me and Tsubaki's parent's are walking towards Homurahara Gakuen. Today was the school's culture festival. At first I had little interest in going, but after Mrs. Mitsugamiyo told me what Haruki and Tsubaki's class was doing, I had to go. We arrived at the front gate to a large wave of activity. People were going left and right to different stalls and activites. Me and the Mitsugamiyo's split up, and I headed directly to class 3-B.

I took a moment to prepare myself mentally before I went inside, I knew I could probably suffer some kind of heart problem if I was not ready for it. After a few minutes of mental preparation, I opened the door.

"Welcome home, Goshujin-sama."

Frilly blouse, check. Short frilly skirt, check. Head gear, check. Knee-high socks, check. Large blush spreading across her face as she realizes who I am, check. Everything is in order here.

Of course, I came to the Culture Festival for the project Tsubaki and Haruki's class were doing. This particular project, was a Maid Cafe. In front of me was a rather red faced Haruki wearing a maid outfit that looked amazingly good on her. It may just be my personal tastes, though. Haruki shuffled her feet over to me and whispered.

"What are you doing here?! I thought you weren't coming!"

I smiled and shrugged a bit as I took the menu she had for me in her hands.

"Well, I heard I would get to see you and Tsubaki dressed up like cute maids, so I dropped everything and hurried over. Now, shouldn't you take me to my table?"

Haruki fought back her blush a bit and straightened her back. She smiled a bit, which seemed a bit forced to me, and nodded.

"Sure, right this way."

I was seated with out issue, and I'm fairly certain Haruki went out of her way to make sure Tsubaki was my waitress. Tsubaki looked much better in the maid uniform than Haruki did, which was saying a lot. I stayed there for over two hours, constantly getting my tea refilled, and talking with Tsubaki every time she came over. It cost me seven-thousand yen at the end, but it was worth it. Now that it was all over, me, Haruki, and Tsubaki all walked home together. Tsubaki was, of course, latched to my arm. As one would expect, we discussed a rather familiar topic.

"I still cannot believe you wished for an end to the Grail Wars at the end of all of that. It seems like your father gave up right as he won, doesn't that seem weird to you at all, Sam?"

"A little bit. Maybe he just lost his focus on me and couldn't keep control? I'm not so sure myself, but that's the past. What matters now is that the Grail Wars are over for good."

"Yep!"

Tsubaki happily agreed with me and tightened her grip on my arm, and I could not help but smile. Haruki sighed a bit, and eventually pulled out a slip of paper.

"You two are so lucky. I still haven't found anybody. You're at least five ahead of me on my list of things I need to do in my young life."

"What's on that list, exactly?"

I asked curiously while looking over at Haruki, passed Tsubaki. As held the list up to me, too quickly for me to read, and then started listing off some of the things.

"Get your magic crest."

"Check."

All three of us spoke almost in unison, and laughed a bit afterwards. Haruki looked at the list again.

"Win the Grail War."

Tsubaki reached over and grabbed my free arm, raising it above my own head.

"Check!"

She giggled a bit, and I could not help but smile. Tsubaki laughed at our actions, which just a few months ago I would have been disgusted seeing other people do. I guess love really can change people that much. Haruki soon went back to the list.

"Fall in love."

"Check."

Both me and Tsubaki said it this time, Haruki sighing a bit before looking back at the list.

"Become the family head."

"Check."

Just me this time. We decided that with my Father's long silence, I eventually declared myself the head of the Parker family Magus line to the Mage's Association. After Sister Ortensia and the Tohsaka family told them of the events during the Grail War, they officially recognized me with little objection. Haruki nodded, then back to the list.

"Have sex with the person I love."

"Check!"

Tsubaki happily chirped her little check, we all stopped in our tracks and silence fell across the three of us. Haruki and I were the first to blush horribly, and then Tsubaki realized she let something slip that she shouldn't have.

"Oh... well... yeah... about that."

She giggled a bit to laugh it off, but the secret was out. Haruki stepped away from us a bit, and pointed a finger at the two of us.

"Y-you two... already..."

After Haruki pieced everything together, her already red face blushed further. She started flapping her lips like a fish, but no words came out. The mood was awkward, and Tsubaki had already started to blush more than me. Of course, there was only one way out of this.

"Well we split up here! Bye Haruki!"

I picked up Tsubaki, carefully putting her over my shoulder, and started running towards the Mitsugamiyo house. Tsubaki let out a squeal of embarrassment as the finality of what she did finally came to her, and she buried her face in my back, half-crying.

"She know's, Sammy! She knows! She knows! She knows!"

Tsubaki's crying made it difficult for me to continue running. I slowed down once I was sure we were far enough from Haruki, and set her down. She complained into my chest for a few minutes before she was all better. Afterwards, we walked home silently, arm in arm.

Once home, me and Tsubaki went to our separate rooms. Once in my room, I let out a long sigh and slumped back on my bed. Today was filled with excitement and embarrassment. The bombshell Tsubaki dropped a few minutes ago still fresh in my mind. My thoughts wandered to how Haruki might act next time she see's us. I wiped all these thoughts from my mind and checked under my bed.

After I came to live at the Mitsugamiyo House, I became paranoid about my belongings being found and taken by Tsubaki's parents. While most of it was unimportant and would have no reason to be taken, I had to be overcautious about a certain item of mine. I reached under the bed, shifting a few bags and suitcases aside as I finally found it's case.

After making sure the door was locked, I went back to my bed and opened the case, gazing at my most prized possession. A long spear laid perfectly in the long case, waiting for the day of it's use. I smiled to myself and closed the case, hiding it again.

"...My wish was granted, indeed."


End file.
